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* 






































i 














Junior Flung a Handful of Corn 




JIMMY JOHN 

AND 

JUNIOR 


By 

JOSEPH CHASE 


Illustrated by 

Mildred Buckley Klammer 


THE PENN PUBLISHING 
COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 


1924 


COPYRIGHT 
1934 BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 



Jimmy John and Junior 


Manufacturing 

Plant 


Camden, N. J, 


Made in the U. S. A. 


MAR 10^ 




CONTENTS 


I. 

A Happy Surprise - 

- 

- 

- 

7 

II. 

A Doorstep Good-Bye Party 

- 

- 

14 

III. 

A Woodland Picnic 

- 

- 

- 

23 

IV. 

Home at Last - 

- 

- 

- 

36 

V. 

The Promise - 

- 

- 

- 

46 

YI. 

Up With the Sun - 

- 

- 

- 

54 

VII. 

Dick - 




63 

VIII. 

A Busy Day 

- 

- 

- 

72 

IX. 

Doodle - 

- 

- 

- 

80 

X. 

A Disagreeable Boy 

- 

- 

- 

93 

XI. 

What Junie Did 

- 

- 

- 

100 

XII. 

Another Kind of Boy 

- 

- 

- 

115 

XIII. 

Lost—One Good Opinion 

- 

- 

127 

XIY. 

Fun at the Fire House 

- 

- 

- 

139 

XV. 

Naming the House - 

- 

- 

- 

154 

XYI. 

Sunshine - 

- 

- 

- 

170 

XVII. 

The Cave Dwellers 

- 

- 

- 

185 

XVIII. 

Boy Friends - 

- 

- 

- 

196 

XIX. 

Dick’s Way 

- 

- 

- 

208 

XX. 

Home is Best - 

- 

- 

- 

216 



8 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


“ Oh, let him go that far,” John spoke impa¬ 
tiently. He was not fond of minding Junior. 
“ We can catch him if he tries to go out the gate.” 

“ No; he’s got to come back. Mother said not 
to let him off the porch.” 

Jimmy was the most obedient of the three 
Hopkins boys. He was eleven years old and 
John was ten. John was inclined to slide out of 
minding and Junior did not like to mind at all. 
But then, Junior was only five and was just be¬ 
ginning to find out how nice it was to have his 
own way. 

Junior’s true name was Alexander David, the 
same as his father’s. No one but his great-aunt 
Elizabeth ever called him that. Everyone 
said Junior was such a dear little boy. He 
had a round rosy face and a head of fluffy 
yellow curls. His eyes were very blue and 
his nose turned up a little. He and Jimmy 
looked a little alike for Jimmy had blue eyes and 
yellow hair, too. John’s hair and eyes were 
brown and his face was thin instead of round. 
He was almost as tall as Jimmy, but not nearly 
so strong, nor did he have as sweet and sunny a 
disposition as his older brother. 

“ There now! ” Jimmy exclaimed as he caught 


A HAPPY SURPRISE 


9 


Junior by the shoulder. “ I’ve got you! You 
can’t wiggle away from me, Mr. Junie.” He 
pretended he was holding Junior very tightly as 
he marched him back to the veranda. He set 
the runaway on the top step of the veranda and 
ran a teasing hand through Junior’s curls until 
they stood straight up on his head. “ You sit 
there now and be a good boy—if you can.” 

“ I are always a good boy, Jimmy,” protested 
Junior. 

“ Yes, you are.” Jimmy went on wooling him 
until he gurgled and shouted with laughter. 

“ What’s happening out here? ” Mrs. Hop¬ 
kins, the boys’ pretty golden-haired mother, sud¬ 
denly appeared in the open front door, a large, 
covered willow basket in her hands. Behind her 
came Netta, the maid, carrying another covered 
basket. They set the baskets on the floor of the 
veranda. 

“ Oh, I’m just funning with Junie,” Jimmy 
laughed. “ Aren’t we nearly ready to start. 
Mother? It’s ten o’clock. Father said he’d be 
here at ten sharp.” 

“ It’s ten minutes past ten, and I wish it 
weren’t,” his mother replied. “ Netta and I still 
have a good deal to see to.” 


10 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

“Me-ew! Me-eow!” came plaintively from 
one of the baskets. 

“ Poor Sunshine. He doesn’t know what to 
make of being shut in. He has mewed ever since 
I put him in the basket,” Mrs. Hopkins said. 

“ Maybe he thinks he’s going to be killed. 
Poor Sunny Sunshine! You’re all right. No 
one’s going to hurt you.” John spoke reassur¬ 
ingly to Sunshine. 

Sunshine and his fat, yellow Angora brother, 
Taffy, were all ready to go on a journey. Sun¬ 
shine was a bright golden color with a wide or¬ 
ange stripe down the middle of his back. He had 
a coral-pink nose and mouth and large pale green 
eyes. Taffy was a cream-yellow with a white 
necktie. His nose and mouth were as pink as 
Sunshine’s, but his eyes were golden. Sometimes 
they changed to very deep brown. Both cats 
had long, fluffy hair and full ruffles around their 
faces and waving, plumy tails. Taffy weighed 
eighteen pounds and Sunshine twenty. They 
were both six years old and had been given to 
Jimmy on his fifth birthday when they were tiny 
balls of kittens. 

“ Taffy isn’t making a bit of noise. He’s as 
quiet as can be.” John pried up the lid of 


A HAPPY SURPRISE 11 

Taffy’s basket a trifle and peeped in at the An¬ 
gora puss. 

“ He’s so scared he can’t mew, I guess. 
Doesn’t it seem queer that this very morning 
we’re going away from this house for good? ” 
Jimmy sat down by Sunshine’s basket, his round 
face quite sober. “Just think! This house is 
where we’ve always been. After we go away to¬ 
day we won’t see it any more ever. I’ve had 
good times here, too, and I like the boys and girls 
in this street.” 

“ Oh, we’ll see it again some time. Maybe 
we’ll make somebody in this street a visit some 
day. I wouldn’t want to live in the same house 
for always,” John said very positively. “ What 
I like to think about is the fun we’ll have in the 
country. We’re going to be right close to fields 
and woods and maybe a pond or a brook 
and-” 

“ A great big yard, with fruit trees and a 
garden and chickens,” Jimmy broke in eagerly. 
“ It will be splendid. Sunshine and Taffy’ll 
have a fine time, too. Won’t you, old kitten- 
cats? ” 

“ Ya-as,” came loudly from Sunshine’s basket 
in such a funny way that both boys giggled. 


12 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


“He said ‘yes,’” John declared. “There 
goes Junie again! ” 

Jimmy had not been watching Junior very 
closely. Now he made a dash for him just in 
time to stop his progress out the gate. 

“Lemmego! Lemme go, Jimmy! ” Junior 
danced up and down and flapped his hands. 
“ Look! I don’t run ’way! I just going to meet 
the chilrun! There’s Marj’rie an’ Mary an’ Rob¬ 
ert an’ all the chilrun. Hello, chilruns! ” 

Junior began waving his arms and calling out 
to a little procession of children who had come 
out of the house next door and were now passing 
through their gate to the street. Jimmy loosed 
Junior and watched the procession in surprise. 

They came straight to the Hopkins’ gate and 
the foremost girl opened it. There were ten of 
them and a little black-eyed girl, next to the head 
girl, was carrying a large splint basket. The 
handle was tied with a bow of wide red satin rib¬ 
bon and it was filled with packages wrapped in 
white tissue paper and decorated with narrow red 
ribbons. 

“ It’s—-why—it’s just like Christmas! ” Jimmy 
cried out. 

Just then he caught sight of the last boy in the 


A HAPPY SURPRISE 


13 


line. He was a tall boy of about Jimmy’s age 
and he was holding tightly to a towering cake, 
covered with pale-pink icing with round red and 
green candies on the top. John saw him in the 
same instant. Both boys exclaimed together: 
“ It’s a party! It’s a party! And it’s for us! ” 


CHAPTER II 


A DOORSTEP GOOD-BYE PARTY 

John and Jimmy started down the walk to 
meet the procession which was now through the 
gate. 

“ It’s my party,” shrieked Junior, bumping 
against Jimmy as he ran to meet the children. 

“ ’Course it’s your party, Junie,” Helen Davis 
happily assured him, “ but it’s John’s and 
Jimmy’s party, too.” Helen was the girl who 
headed the group. 

Turning to her flock behind her she said, “ Now 
do stand still and don’t say a word for a minute. 
I have to make my speech, you know. After 
that, go ahead and be noisy.” 

After a minute the children stood still and al¬ 
most stopped talking. Helen waited until they 
were fairly quiet, then she began in a clear high 
voice: 

“We all had permission to stay at home from 
school this morning just to give you boys a nice 
14 


A GOOD BYE PARTY 


15 


good-bye party and tell you how sorry we are 
that you are going away from here and how much 
we shall miss you. Our best wishes go with this 
basket and we hope you will like everything in 
it. You mustn’t open any of the packages now. 
You are not to open them until your mother says 
so. But the cake—that’s different. We are all 
going to sit on your steps and have some of it 
with you before your papa comes with the auto¬ 
mobile. I guess that’s all.” Helen’s cheeks were 
brilliantly pink. 

“ We’re so s’prised we can’t think what to say,” 
Jimmy blurted out, his own cheeks as pink as 
Helen’s. “ It’s fine to have a party now and see 
all of you right before we go away.” 

“ Is it ? I guess it is! Hurray! ” John waved 
his arms above his head and gave vent to a lusty 
cheer. “ My, but that cake’s a whopper! What 
kind is it, Helen? It’s dandy and pink outside, 
but you can’t see how nice it is inside.” 

“ Oh, it’s all kinds. The inside, I mean. 
Mamma made it. It has four layers and there 
are chopped raisins and nuts and candied cherries 
and citron and figs all mixed in with the icing. 
That all goes between the layers.” 

“ Junior wants his first. He says give him a 


16 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

great big piece,” laughed Robert. “ How much 
may he have?” Robert looked inquiringly at 
Jimmy as he flourished a cake knife over the pale 
pink wonder. 

“ I’ll ask Mother.” Jimmy turned toward the 
hall door. He remembered he was host and came 
back to say “ Excuse me ” to his guests. Half¬ 
way across the hall he met his mother bringing a 
tall pitcher of lemonade and glasses on a tray. 
Netta followed her with a larger tray. Jimmy's 
eyes sparkled. Netta’s tray was loaded 
with plates of brick ice-cream, brown, pink, and 
white. 

A loud cheer greeted Mrs. Hopkins and Netta. 
Netta took a sheaf of fancy pink and white paper 
napkins from her wide apron pocket and whisked 
them among the children who were now seated on 
the steps of the veranda. 

The party just nicely covered the front steps 
without crowding them. Junior sat on the mid¬ 
dle step and chattered to everyone around him. 
John and Jimmy forgot how impatient they had 
been for their father to come for them. They 
were so greatly interested in having this last good 
time with their playmates that they did not see 
his car when it finally came round the corner. 


A GOOD-BYE PARTY 


17 


He had brought it to a stop in front of the house 
before any of the children noticed it. Then the 
cry went up, “ There’s your car! There’s your 
car!” 

“ Father’ll have to wait until we eat up the ice¬ 
cream. Mother says there’s enough to go round 
twice,” John said hospitably. “ We can’t start 
yet,” he called out to his father. “ We’re having 
a party. It was a surprise one on us. Anyway, 
you have to eat some ice-cream and cake, so you 
can’t start, either.” 

“ Is that so? ” Mr. Hopkins raised his heavy 
black eyebrows and twisted his face in such a 
funny way that the children went into a gale of 
laughter. He had large brown eyes and a round 
merry face and he was always saying and doing 
funny things that made children laugh. 

“ Find me a place to sit down if you expect 
me to stay to your party. I’m not going to sit 
up on the veranda all by myself. I want to sit 
on the steps. I’ll have to make some of these 
great big girls and boys move over and give me 
room. Shoo, shoo! Move along!” He flour¬ 
ished his arms in front of the wildly giggling 
children who crowded together to make room for 
him. He laughed and joked and ate ice-cream 


18 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


with them, then he had to hurry into the house for 
a last look around. 

“ We're going to stay until the last last min¬ 
ute,’' Robert announced. 44 Your mother said we 
might. We want to see you start off in the car 
and everything. My, but you’re going to have 
a nice long ride! ” 

“ Don’t I wish I was going, too,” declared 
Clifford Ware, John’s chum. 

44 Oh, you had better come and see us—every 
one of you. You could have a picnic sometime 
and come then,” invited Jimmy. 44 Or some of 
you could come on the train one time and some 
more another.” 

44 We will; we will,” the children all promised 
at once. 

After a while Netta appeared with three large 
bricks of ice-cream on a platter. 

44 Now whose of yez is for more cream? ” she 
asked in her good-natured Irish brogue. 44 Do 
yez be eatin’ it for it won’t keep, and there’s no 
taking it with yez in the oitymobile.” She divided 
it among the group. 

44 1 see I’ll have to get busy and cut some more 
cake.” Robert handed about a second generous 
helping of the pink-iced cake. 


A GOOD BYE PARTY 


19 


This started the party all over again and the 
cream and cake soon disappeared while the chil¬ 
dren chattered like young magpies. They asked 
Jimmy and John a good many questions. Was 
it a large house? Was it clear out in the country, 
all by itself? Would there be any children to 
play with? How far away were the woods? 

“ We don’t know much more than you do about 
it,” Jimmy said bluntly. “ Father and Mother 
won’t tell us a thing. They’re saving it for an¬ 
other surprise. We know we are to have a large 
yard with lots of trees, and we can have a garden; 
each of us. That’s about all we do know. We 
don’t know what station our house is near. We’ll 
have to write a long letter and tell you about 
it.” 

“And Junie’s going to have a garden, too! 
What are you going to plant in your garden, 
Junie? ” Marjorie pulled one of Junior’s tight 
golden curls. 

“ Chickens and bananas,” Junior said 
promptly. 

“ Oh-h-h-h! ” A loud shout went up from the 
doorstep party. 

“ You can’t plant chickens, you goosie,” em¬ 
phasized John; “and bananas only grow down 


20 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

South. You don’t know any more about a gar¬ 
den than Taffy does.” 

“ I are goin’ to have chickies and bananas,” 
Junior stoutly persisted. “ I like ’em. My papa 
said I could.” 

“ I’m going to have lettuce and com, string- 
beans, peas and radishes in my garden,” John 
said with a proud little air; “ and maybe cab¬ 
bages.” 

“ I guess I’ll have corn and beans, too,” Jimmy 
declared. “ I want tomatoes and cucumbers and 
beets. Then I’ll grow pumpkins in among the 
com and maybe some watermelons.” 

While the children finished their treat they 
took turns telling what would be nice to have in 
a garden. Pretty soon Netta came out and col¬ 
lected the empty plates, spoons and glasses in a 
basket. She had borrowed them from Marjorie’s 
mother because the Hopkins’ dishes had already 
reached their new home. Then Mr. Hopkins 
came out of the house loaded down with luggage. 
He carried it out to the car and came back to 
say good-bye to the little boys and girls who had 
so long been his sons’ playmates. 

While he was shaking hands all around, Mrs. 
Hopkins came out with a leather bag and the 


A GOOD-BYE PARTY 


21 


boys’ hats. Netta was with her, talking as fast 
as she could. Netta was to make the journey to 
the Hopkins’ new home by train the next day. 
She was going to stay in the city over night with 
her own family. 

John and Jimmy felt highly excited as they 
went down the familiar walk for the last time 
surrounded by their schoolmates. It was just 
like stories they had read of little boys who went 
far away to live and had parties given them be¬ 
fore they went. They walked rather slowly, 
carrying the gift basket between them. Junior 
danced and pranced ahead of them shouting, 
“Good-bye, house! Good-bye, house! I are 
goin’ to the chickens where it’s all grass an’ 
trees! ” 

When they reached the automobile Jimmy 
cried out, “ Oh, we almost forgot Taffy and Sun¬ 
shine. They’re on the porch yet! ” 

“ Netta is bringing them.” His mother 
nodded toward the house. Netta was just 
coming down the steps, a cat-basket on each 
arm. 

Mr. Hopkins helped his wife into the large 
blue car, then lifted Junior in beside her. Junior 
kicked his chubby, slippered feet against the 


22 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

leather seat and crowed for joy because they were 
ready to start. 

John and Jimmy stood in front of the car for 
a minute or two to say a last good-bye to their 
playmates. As they climbed into the car the 
group of bright-faced children crowded closer, 
excited and smiling. 

“ Let’s give three cheers for Mr. and Mrs. 
Hopkins and Jimmy and John and Junior,” pro¬ 
posed Robert, his dark face aglow. “ Hip-hip- 
hurrah! ” 

“Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!” the children 
shouted, waving hands and handkerchiefs. The 
cheering kept up until the car rounded the comer. 
John and Jimmy leaned far out of the car to call 
and wave vigorous good-byes to their watching 
chums. Junior stood up on the seat and squealed 
and pounded on the little window at the back of 
the car. Even Sunshine said “ ya-a-s ” and 
“ me-ow.” That was his way of saying good-bye. 

Then the automobile turned a comer and the 
wide tree-lined street in which the Hopkins had 
lived so long disappeared from view. Jimmy, 
John and Junior, three little city boys, were 
fairly started on the way to being three little 
country boys. 


CHAPTER III 


A WOODLAND PICNIC 

The Hopkins’ car went speeding in and out 
of the noisy city streets for quite a long time. 
Jimmy and John watched all that went on about 
them with eager eyes. The city they were leaving 
behind them was a very large one. They had 
never before seen the section of it through which 
they were now traveling. Junior was interested, 
too. Every time anything particular caught 
his eye he had to turn to his mother and ask 
questions. It kept him so busy bobbing back and 
forth he missed seeing a good deal. 

Near the east end of the city they passed 
through a wide street called Market Lane. Here 
the large markets of the city were situated. 
Mr. Hopkins stopped the car in front of one 
of the markets and he and Jimmy got out of it. 
They bought oranges, bananas and early straw¬ 
berries. Then the blue car scudded on again. 

Presently the rows of brick and brown and 
23 


24 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

green stone houses, all joined together, were 
gone. In place of them were houses built of 
wood or stucco or of white and light-colored 
stone. These houses had small, close-cut green 
yards around them. Spring flowers bloomed in 
the yards. 

“ Is our house as nice as these? ” Jimmy asked 
his father. 

“ I promised someone I wouldn’t tell.” 

“ What color is it? ” Jimmy began afresh. 

“ Well, it might be sky-blue-pink, but—it 
isn’t,” was the teasing reply. 

“ Is our yard as large as that one? ” Jimmy 
pointed toward a large, grassy square they were 
passing. 

“ I don’t know how large that yard is. I never 
measured it,” was the sly answer. 

“ I think you’re awful mean.” Jimmy chuck¬ 
led nevertheless. 

On the back seat of the car John had been in¬ 
dustriously trying to coax his mother to answer 
his questions about the new home. He had not 
succeeded any better than Jimmy. Junior wasn’t 
at all curious about his new home. He was sit¬ 
ting far back on the seat, waving his short legs 
in the air and singing a long song about nothing. 


A WOODLAND PICNIC 


25 


There was not much tune to it and no words but 
there was plenty of noise. Junior was fond of 
this kind of singing. 

“ Oh, keep still, Junie. You are making a lot 
of racket,” John said crossly. He reached out 
and caught Junior by his sturdy legs as they 
kicked in mid-air. 

“ I aren’t. I singin’ a pretty song. Leggo my 
legs, Johnny.” Junior went on singing as loudly 
as he could. 

“ You only think you are,” John told him 
scornfully, releasing his little brother’s legs with 
a peevish jerk. John felt very sulky and out of 
sorts. He had a quick temper and was often im¬ 
patient with Junior when he should have been 
gentle. He hated, too, to be crossed when he 
wanted his own way. He poutingly decided he 
would not speak to his mother again until they 
reached their new home. He was very quiet for 
the next five minutes, then he began to grow 
ashamed of himself. He brightened up and be¬ 
gan playing with Junior who had grown tired 
of his song and was ready to be amused. 

The car was now going north over a broad, 
smooth pike. There were not many houses to be 
seen and these houses were as large as castles. 


26 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


They were set far back on great, green lawns 
shaded by tall, beautiful trees. 

There were a good many miles of country after 
they left the beautiful private estates behind. 
There were fields, white with daisies, golden with 
buttercups and sweet with fragrant red clover. 
Then came long stretches of green, hilly meadows 
where cows and sometimes a few horses were 
grazing; where the tops of red-roofed farm¬ 
houses could be seen from the road. All the way 
through this part of the country were the vege¬ 
table gardens; wide, brown fields with rows and 
rows of pale green plants. Some showed only a 
few inches above the earth, others were a foot 
high, or higher. 

“ See the gardens! ” Jimmy called out to John. 
“ I wish we were at our house now so I could 
plant mine right away. Just look! Those plants 
are large and tall already and ours aren’t even 
planted yet.” 

“ Those are early varieties of vegetables, 
Jimmy,” reassured his father. “ We’ll be in time 
enough for ours, if we hustle.” 

“ Is the ground plowed? ” quizzed John. 

“ Yes; the ground is plowed.” 

“ How much-” began John. 


A WOODLAND PICNIC 


27 


“ Never mind asking me any more questions. 
The main question now is to have our luncheon. 
It’s after two o’clock and I’m getting hungry. I 
had only one plate of ice-cream and one piece of 
cake. You fellows had two. Now keep your 
eyes open. If you see a pretty spot along the 
way, sing out. We’ll stop there and have a wood¬ 
land picnic. I’ll run the car slowly.” 

“ Oh, goody! ” John clapped his hands. 

“ I hope we’ve chicken sandwiches and sweet 
pickles and salted peanuts,” was Jimmy’s cry. 
“ Tell you what, this is a great day. First, a 
party in the morning, then a picnic in the after¬ 
noon and a dandy long ride besides. I’d like to 
move to another place eveiy day.” 

“ Well, I would not ” emphasized his mother 
as she began to rearrange the luggage in the bot¬ 
tom of the tonneau in order to get at the picnic 
hamper. 

“ When are we going to have our presents? ” 
Jimmy next wanted to know. 

“ Not yet, but soon,” was his mother’s indefi¬ 
nite reply. 

“ What’s the use of asking questions? ” he said 
with a little snicker. “ No one ever tells you a 
thing.” 


28 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


“ There’s a fine place! ” John had been keep¬ 
ing a sharp lookout. They were almost to a 
wooden bridge. On the other side of the bridge 
and about a hundred feet back from it was a 
clump of willow trees overhanging a gurgling 
silvery brook. Under the trees the grass was 
short and thick. 

“ Right-o,” agreed Mr. Hopkins. “ I can 
run the car down the side road that crosses 
the pike and it will be out of the way of other 
cars.” 

Jimmy was first out of the car after it turned 
into the narrow but smooth side road. He was 
carrying the gift basket. He set the basket down 
on the grass and put both hands to his mouth, 
trumpet fashion. He roared through his hands 
in as big a voice as he could muster: “ Here you 
are! Right this way! Visit the best picnic 
ground in the world! ” 

“ Wow, wow, wow! Ya, ya, ya, y-a-a! ” mim¬ 
icked Junior, his hands to his mouth. “ Here we 
are! ” He ran past Jimmy and straight toward 
the brook. 

“Ju-nio-r-r! ” warned Mrs. Hopkins. “ Come 
back. Mustn’t go near the brook. Quick, 
Jimmy! Run after him! ” 


A WOODLAND PICNIC 


29 


Jimmy hurried after Junior who had already 
reached the edge of the shallow brook. 

“ Oh, see the funny fishy! ” the little boy cried 
out. Before Jimmy could reach him he stooped, 
and, leaning far forward, tried to grab a minnow 
as it swam through the ripples. Splash! Junior 
dived into the brook on his hands and knees. His 
small hands slipped on the moss-green stones and 
he rolled over in the water with a yell. 

“ O-w-w-w! ” It was not a wail of pain. It 
was a gleeful yell, and with it went a great spat¬ 
tering of water. “ See, Jimmy! I are swimmin’. 
Lemme be.” Junior began to wiggle and resist 
as Jimmy hauled him out of the shallows. 

“ Alexander David Hopkins! ” cried his 
mother in her sternest voice. “You naughty 
boy!” She left the hamper she had begun to 
unpack and rushed down to the brook’s edge. 
She gave Junior a severe little shake as she 
turned him about to see how wet his clothing was. 

“ He’s wet all over,” Jimmy informed her. 
" He rolled in the water, then he tried to swim.” 

“ I’ll have to undress you, Junie, and hang 
your clothes in the sun to dry. But what will you 
wear while they’re drying? ” Mrs. Hopkins 
glanced anxiously about her, then she laughed. 


30 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


She went over to the hamper and picked up the 
white damask lunch-cloth she had laid beside it. 
Next she sent Jimmy to ask Mr. Hopkins for 
the extra clean handkerchief he always carried. 

She quickly removed Junior’s dripping cloth¬ 
ing and made the handkerchief do for a towel. 
Then she draped the lunch-cloth on him in folds, 
fastening it with safety pins from a needle and 
pin book she had in her hand-bag. 

“ There; that will have to do. You’ll have to 
go barefooted until your slippers are dry. Go 
and sit right down there ” She pointed to a spot 
near the hamper. “ Stay there until I have 
luncheon ready.” 

“ Te, he, he,” snickered Jimmy, as Junior 
marched along in his snowy robe and sat meekly 
down. “ He looks so funny. Like queer pic¬ 
tures of men in ladies’ dresses that you see in 
books.” 

“ What’s the matter with Junie? Oh, ha, ha, 
ha!” John had been with his father while he 
parked the car. Now both of them began to 
laugh at Junior. 

“ He tried to catch a minnow and fell into the 
brook,” Jimmy explained. 

Mrs. Hopkins was busy hanging Junior’s little 


A WOODLAND PICNIC 


31 


wet garments on some low bushes where the sun 
would strike them warmly and quickly dry them. 

“ He certainly has not been a good boy.” Mrs. 
Hopkins glanced severely at Junior, though she 
really wanted to laugh. “ I told him to wait for 
me when we left the car, but he ran ahead. Then 
I told him to come back when he started for the 
brook, but he disobeyed Mother again. Now we 
must all stay here until Junie’s clothes are dry. 
We can’t take him into our nice car looking like 
that.” 

Junior hung his head. He was ready to burst 
into tears. Then he saw John laughing at him 
and he changed his mind and laughed, too. 

“ His clothes will soon dry in this hot sun,” Mr. 
Hopkins said. 

“ Oh, yes, only he has our table-cloth for a 
robe,” smiled his mother, “ so we’ll have to get 
along with paper napkins.” 

She carpeted the soft grass thickly with blue- 
flowered paper napkins and the picnickers gath¬ 
ered about the woodland spread. Jimmy had his 
wish. There were chicken and ham sandwiches, 
salted peanuts, sweet pickles and olives and fat 
golden sponge cakes with thick, creamy icing. 
Besides there were the oranges and bananas they 


32 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

had bought at the market. The strawberries 
were to be kept for dinner that night. The boys 
had a large bottle of milk and their parents a 
thermos bottle of coffee. 

Taffy and Sunshine were not forgotten. Mr. 
Hopkins brought their baskets down under the 
trees and pulled back the lids a little so as to give 
the imprisoned pussies more air. They had a 
small can of salmon between them served on two 
paper plates. 

After luncheon Mrs. Hopkins said, “ Now, 
boys, it’s time to see what is in the gift basket. 
Here is a note from Marjorie which will tell us 
what we are to do.” She took from her hand-bag 
a square envelope and opened it. The note read: 

“ Dear Jimmy, John and Junie: 

“ You are not to touch the gift basket 
until you have had your lunch. You are to have 
your presents under the trees somewhere at your 
picnic. We know about the picnic now, but you 
won’t know until you get to it. You are to sit 
on the grass, three in a row, and each draw a 
present. Your names are on the packages. If 
you get one that isn’t for you, pass it on. Some¬ 
body will have to read Junie’s for him. When 
all the bundles are out of the basket then start 
and open them. Take turns. We hope you will 


A WOODLAND PICNIC 


33 


like your presents and we give them to you with a 
great deal of good will. Good luck to you all and 
we will come out to see you as soon as we can.” 

The note was signed first by Marjorie, then 
below her name all the other children had signed. 

The three Js, as their father sometimes called 
them, obediently sat down in a row on the grass, 
impatient to see what was in the packages. Al¬ 
together, there were four packages for each little 
brother and one apiece for Mr. and Mrs. Hop¬ 
kins. 

“ Open one of your packages first,” his mother 
directed Jimmy. “ John, you come next and 
Junie last. He’ll do better with his after he has 
seen you boys open yours.” 

Junior had not stopped to wait for John and 
Jimmy. He had the paper off his first present 
and was busy with the second. So there were 
only John and Jimmy to take turns. 

Jimmy began by opening the smallest of his 
packages first. He found a pretty, daisy-shaped 
pen-wiper with black and red felt leaves. Later, 
John found one, too, only his was of black and 
bright blue felt. It took the two quite a while 
to open their largest packages. These were com- 


34 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

posed of fold upon fold of wrapping paper. 
When at last they came down to the real pres¬ 
ents, they were very small and turned out to be 
pocket-knives with two blades apiece and smooth 
green handles. Their other gifts were a game 
and a book apiece. Junior received a soft rubber 
ball with a splendid bounce to it, a set of picture 
blocks, a make-believe watch with bright red 
hands and a little red metal automobile that, 
when wound up, would run for a few feet by it¬ 
self. Mrs. Hopkins’ present was a bottle of vio¬ 
let toilet water and Mr. Hopkins’ was three linen 
handkerchiefs, initialed with “ H.” 

While the boys were playing with their gifts 
Mr. Hopkins cut some willow branches and made 
each of the three boys a willow whistle. Then a 
fine, noisy time began. It ended only when Mr. 
Hopkins looked at his watch and said it was later 
than he had thought and that they had better 
start at once. The hot sun had dried Junior’s 
little blue linen suit and underclothing though it 
was rather stiff and wrinkled. 

Soon the remainder of the picnic luncheon was 
repacked in the hamper and it and the cat-baskets 
were back in the automobile again. Mr. Hop¬ 
kins called out, “ All aboard! All aboard! ” in a 


A WOODLAND PICNIC 35 

deep voice and Jimmy and John raced for the 
car. Junior trotted behind them crying out* 
“ Wait for me. Wait for me.” 

It did not take more than five minutes to get 
settled in the car again. Then they were on the 
pike once more, speeding away from the pretty 
brook and shady willow trees toward their new 
home and to new pleasures and adventures. 


CHAPTER IV 


HOME AT LAST 

It was half-past six when Jimmy exclaimed, 
“ Oh, see!” He half stood up in the seat and 
pointed. Straight ahead and through the spaces 
between trees he had caught sight of a sheet of 
sparkling blue water. “ Is it a lake? ” he asked 
breathlessly. 

“ Yes, it’s a lake,” smiled his father. “ The 
name of it is Rainbow Lake and the town we 
are going to live in is named Lakeview. We’ll 
be home in fifteen minutes.” 

Mr. Hopkins had already turned from the road 
they had been using into a broad, smooth pike 
which ran parallel with the lake. 

“ Is it a big lake? ” quizzed Jimmy. He was 
much excited over this new feature. “ Is it deep? 
Can we fish and swim in it? ” 

“ It’s about five miles long and a mile wide. 
I don’t know yet about the fishing and swimming. 
I’ll have to find that out.” 

36 


HOME AT LAST 37 

“ How far do we live from the lake? ” was 
Jimmy’s next question. 

“ About a mile. Now no more questions for a 
minute. I must see which way will bring us home 
the quickest.” He drove a little further along the 
pike, then swung the machine into a wide dirt 
street, shaded by thick-trunked maples. 

Jimmy and John tried to see both sides of the 
street at once. They had been motoring through 
one town after another all day but they thought 
Lakeview was the nicest place they had yet seen. 
It had gray and white and yellow and dark green 
houses, mostly of wood, much as those of other 
towns they had seen, but somehow it was differ¬ 
ent, and nicer. 

Mr. Hopkins turned the car into another dirt 
street, lined with slim, straight poplars. On the 
east side of this street were several houses, but 
on the west side there was only one. It was a 
large, square, dark green house with white trim¬ 
mings and a wide veranda around two sides of it. 
It had a gravel drive at the left side that led to a 
dark green and white garage behind the house. 
Over the veranda climbed pink and red rambler 
roses just beginning to show blossoms. In the 
front yard were two straight, stiff catalpa trees 


88 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


that looked like two green opened umbrellas. 
The house stood in the middle of a lawn as large 
as Jimmy and John could wish for. On the lawn 
were big trees and little trees, big bushes and 
little bushes. The right-hand side looked a little 
like a woods except that the grass was cut close 
and the bushes had been carefully trimmed. 

“ And is this big , big house and big , big yard 
all ours? ” shrieked John unbelievingly, as his fa¬ 
ther brought the car to a standstill before the 
house. 

“ It is.” His father sprang from the machine 
and opened the door of the tonneau. “ Welcome 
home, Mother. Welcome home, youngsters.” 

“ Hurry up, Johnny. I want get down.” 
Junior gave John a vigorous push forward. 
“ This my house. Muwer said so.” 

“ Oh, John, come here! ” Jimmy had already 
disappeared around a comer of the house. His 
voice came back in a jubilant yell. 

John scampered after him in a hurry. Junior 
hustled after John, stubbed his foot on a tuft of 
long grass and fell flat. He did not cry. He 
was a sturdy little fellow. He picked himself up 
with a half-chuckle and hastened on after his 
brothers. 


HOME AT LAST 


39 


What had caught Jimmy’s eye was a wired-in 
piece of ground at the very end of the long back 
yard. In it were two wide-spreading apple trees 
and a couple of stocky peach trees. Part of the 
yard was dirt and part grass grown. At the back 
of it were three neat little open houses, painted 
dark green. Around the outside of the wire 
fence grew tangles of blackberry vines. They 
had already grown tall enough to poke their long, 
prickly, green tendrils over the top of the wire. 

“This is a fine chicken yard; nicer than the 
one at Grandma’s!” John exclaimed with deep 
satisfaction. “ The chickens ought to feel proud 
of themselves to have such fancy houses.” 

“ I hope we’ll have a lot of chicks; some white 
ones, like those big ones at Grandma’s. Maybe 
we’ll have some turkeys, too. Isn’t it all going 
to be great? ” Jimmy’s face glowed. “ I’m glad 
we didn’t know about any of it, aren’t you? ” 

“ Yes.” John looked sober as he thought of 
how nearly he had come to spoiling his own pleas¬ 
ure. 

“ I wonder if that place away over there, all 
full of bushes, belongs to us? We’d better not 
go there unless we know. It looks far away for 
this lot.” Jimmy gazed doubtfully at the thickly- 


40 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

bushed stretch of ground considerably beyond the 
garage. 

“ Let’s go and ask Father. We’ll make him 
come out here and tell us about everything.” 
John started off, Jimmy at his heels. 

Junior had meant to follow Jimmy and John 
but he never reached the chicken-yard. On the 
way he spied a large empty packing box close to 
the house. It stood on end and was tall enough 
so that he could stand up in it. He skipped into 
it and crowded close to one end. He thought 
it would be fun to jump out at John and Jimmy 
when they came back. 

He waited quite a while and had to step in and 
out of his hiding-place about every two minutes 
to see if they were coming. At last he heard their 
voices near him. He made a big jump and flew 
out of the box crying, “ Boo-oo-oo! Boo-woo ! 99 
But when he jumped he jostled the box and it 
fell over. It knocked him down and dropped 
over him. 

“ There, that’s what you get for trying to scare 
us,” teased John. “ Now you can’t get out and 
we are going to leave you there for a while.” 

“ Ow-w-wow-wow! ” yelled Junior. “ I want 
to get out. Let me out, old naughty Johnny.” 


HOME AT LAST 


41 


“ No, sir, I won’t. You called me old naughty 
Johnny. Now you’ll have to stay where you 
are.” 

“ No-o-o-o-o! ” Junior set up a loud wail. 
“ You let me out, Jimmy.” 

“ Stay still then so the box won’t hurt you 
when I lift it,” Jimmy ordered good-naturedly. 
He did not tease Junior as John was fond of 
doing. He raised the box and let the captive out 
from under it while John stood by and laughed. 

“ I don’t like you, bad old Johnny.” Junior 
scowled at John as he picked himself up from the 
grass. “ I won’t never play with you. Show 
me the chickens, Jimmy.” He turned his back 
on John, who only laughed the harder. 

“ There aren’t any yet, Junie. I’ll show you 
the chicken-yard, though. Wait till we ask 
Daddy to come, too.” 

Just then Mr. Hopkins came out the back 
door. “So this is where you went,” he said. “ I 
thought maybe you didn’t like your new house 
and wanted to run away from it. You gave it 
just one look and away you went.” 

“ You’re only funning. Course we like it. 
We were going to come after you when you came 
after us.” John sidled up to his father. “ Won’t 


42 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


you please take us over there? ” John pointed a 
finger at the green bushes. 

“ We were afraid they belonged to somebody 
0186,” Jimmy said when his father told the boys 
they were berry bushes and led the way around 
a large ploughed square of ground to them. 

There were red raspberry and currant bushes 
and back of them an asparagus bed. Still back 
of the asparagus bed was a strawberry bed and 
here the lot belonging to the Hopkins ended on 
that side. 

“ How many chickens are we going to have, 
and when are we going to get them? ” John 
asked. 

“ We’ll have about sixty chickens. I’ve writ¬ 
ten to a man just outside Lakeview who has a 
chicken farm.” 

While they were walking toward the back door 
it opened and Mrs. Hopkins called out, “ Boys, 
you ought to come now if you want to see the 
house inside before dinner. Besides I need Fa¬ 
ther to help me.” 

Mr. Hopkins took firm hold of Junior’s hand 
and raced him across the grass to the house. 
John and Jimmy ran behind them. The whole 
four landed in the kitchen in a bunch. Mr. Hop- 


HOME AT LAST 


43 


kins was at once set to work opening a can of 
baked beans and one of peas. The boys ran off 
to see the house. 

The moving men had set the large pieces of 
furniture in place and the rugs had been laid. 
This made the rooms look homelike even if a 
great deal of the smaller furniture was not yet 
arranged. The boys poked their noses into the 
living-room first. It was a square, pleasant 
apartment with many windows. There was a 
new blue velvet rug on the floor which exactly 
matched the blue wall-paper. 

Back of the living-room was a smaller room 
which was to be used as a library. The Hopkins’ 
bookcases already lined the pale brown walls. 
The brown velvet rug, carved walnut library ta¬ 
ble and big leather chairs were in place, too. 
Both rooms opened into a wide center hall which 
went straight to the kitchen. Across this hall 
was a parlor with a bow window and back of it 
the dining-room. 

The young explorers went through the down¬ 
stairs hastily and rushed up-stairs with a great 
clatter of feet. The very first room they peeped 
into at the head of the stairs was their own. It 
was large and airy with a creamy-tinted wall-pa- 


44 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

per, bordered with pink roses and daisies. On 
one side were John’s and Jimmy’s white twin 
beds. Across from them was Junior’s little blue 
wicker bed. Their crex rug with its wide blue 
border was on the floor, and their chiffoniers 
against the wall, but their smaller belongings 
were still missing. 

“ Let’s go up in the attic before it gets dark.” 
John was impatient to go on. 

They had to hunt a little bit for the attic door 
which at first they mistook for a closet door. Up 
the short, steep flight they pounded, Junior 
stumbling along behind them. The attic in their 
other house had been small and always rather 
dark. In the winter it was too cold to play in 
and in the summer too hot. 

But this attic! The two older boys exclaimed 
with delight. It was large and square and the 
ceiling quite high. It was papered, too, with a 
white-striped paper. It had four windows with 
window-seats and the floor was smooth enough to 
slide on. 

“ Here’s lots of room to play show or anything 
we want to,” Jimmy rejoiced. 

“Wheel” John took a jubilant slide across 
the smooth floor. 


HOME AT LAST 


45 


Junior imitated him. His small slippered feet 
flew out from under him and he landed on his 
back, bumping his head smartly on the hard floor. 
This time he cried and made a good deal of noise 
about it. He lay on the floor and wailed loudly. 

“ Oh, get up, Junie, and stop crying. You’re 
an awful little cry-baby. Give me your hand. 
I’ll help you get up.” 

“ I aren’t a cry-baby. We-e-e-e.” Junior 
squealed like a little pig and kicked out both feet 
at John. 

John dodged the flying feet and tried to catch 
hold of his small, angry brother. Junior kicked 
harder than ever. His feet landed squarely 
against one of John’s knees. 

“Ouch!” John exclaimed angrily. Then he 
pounced down upon Junior and dragged him to 
his feet. He gave Junior a hard slap on the back. 
“ That’s what you get for kicking me,” he sput¬ 
tered. 

The blow did not hurt Junior much, but it 
made him angrier than ever. He fairly roared 
at John and flew at him like a little hurricane. 
He pounded John with both of his baby fists. 
John caught him by the arms. He was now as 
much out of temper as J unior. 


CHAPTER V 


THE PROMISE 

In the midst of the uproar Mr. Hopkins called 
up from the foot of the attic stairs, “ Boys, what 
is the matter up there? ” 

John loosed his hold on Junior’s arms so 
suddenly that Junior sat down on the floor. He 
did not cry any more, but sat and looked at John 
with such a cross face that both John and Jimmy 
had to laugh. 

“ Junior fell down, and ”—John had started to 
answer his father—“ then I-” He stopped. 

“ And then you what? ” came the crisp ques¬ 
tion. 

“ Called him a cry-baby,” John went on. “ He 
kicked me and I hit him and then he got mad and 
hit me some more and-” 

“ Hm-m-m. Come down to dinner, all three 
of you.” Mr. Hopkins turned and went down 
the stairs. 

“ Now Father will give us a scolding when we 

46 




THE PROMISE 


47 


get to the table,” Jimmy said in a worried tone. 
“ You oughtn’t tease Junie and call him names. 
He always flies at you when you say ‘ cry-baby.’ 
It makes him have a temper and Mother’s try¬ 
ing to break him of it. He’s only a baby.” 

“ Don’t care. It was his fault,” grumbled 
John. “ He kicked me.” John started ahead 
down the attic stairs, purposely clumping his feet 
as he went. 

“ Come on, Junie.” Jimmy took the little 
hoy by the hand and piloted him down the steep 
stairs. 

When the three entered the dining-room they 
all looked rather guilty. Jimmy flushed to his 
ears as he met his father’s keen glance. He was 
not to blame in the squabble, but he did not intend 
to say so. 

“ You sit there, John; and Jimmy there; and 
Junior here.” Mrs. Hopkins did not smile as 
she directed the boys where to sit. They slid into 
their chairs very quietly. 

Junior instantly forgot how sober his mamma 
and papa looked as he caught sight of the golden 
brown omelet. “ Want some of that,” he pointed 
a pudgy finger at the omelet. “ I are hungry.” 

“ Just a minute. Son. Before we eat Father 


48 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

has to talk to three little boys who can’t get along 
in a nice new home without quarreling.” 

Junior ducked his head and wriggled down in 
his chair until his head was just on a level with 
the table. 

“ Oh, I guess it was all my fault,” John broke 
in. “ If I hadn’t called Junie a cry-baby he 
wouldn’t have kicked me, and then I wouldn’t 
have hit him.” 

“ Were you and Jimmy teasing Junior? ” 
asked Mrs. Hopkins. “ You know I have told 
you you must not, and why.” 

“ Jimmy wasn’t saying a word. Junie fell 
down and began to yell. I said he was a cry¬ 
baby.” John went on with a truthful account 
of the squabble. 

“ Did it make you feel better to treat Junior 
as you did? ” Mr. Hopkins looked steadily at 
John. 

“ No-o, it didn’t,” John stammered, ver}^ red 
and shamefaced. 

“ Then don’t do such things,” was the stern 
reproof. “ You are five years older than Junior 
and Jimmy is six. Both of you are too old to 
quarrel with him. I want him to grow up with 
you boys. I expect you to look after him and 


THE PROMISE 


49 


set him a good example. Jimmy never has much 
trouble with him. It is always you, John, who 
doesn’t get along with Junie. How does it hap¬ 
pen? ” 

“ I—don’t—know. It just does,” John said 
reluctantly. “ I—I forget and tease him some¬ 
times. Then he gets mad and goes for me.” 

“Ah; that’s just it. You tease him. And 
how many times have you been told not to tease 
him?” 

“A good many,” John owned up. 

“ Well, I’ll remind you of it once more. An¬ 
other time and I shall punish you, not only for 
teasing Junior, but for disobeying orders.” 

Mr. Hopkins turned to Junior who was still 
practicing a disappearing act under the table. 
“ Sit up straight in your chair. Junior,” he said 
briskly in a tone that brought Junior’s yellow 
head above the table in a hurry. “Now listen to 
Father. You are not to kick and strike John 
ever again. If he teases you you must put your 
hands behind your back and walk away from him. 
Do you understand me? ” 

“ Ye-as.” Junior slid about in his chair, but 
nodded his head vigorously. His round blue 
eyes were fixed hungrily on the omelet. 


50 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

“All right. Don’t forget.” Mr. Hopkins at 
once occupied himself with serving the dinner. 
When he lectured his boys he said not much, but 
what he said counted. 

“ I saw a house to-day that was named ‘ Shady- 
lane Bungalow ’ and another that had ‘ Cosy 
Corner ’ over the front porch in white letters,” 
Jimmy suddenly broke the silence that had fol¬ 
lowed his father’s rebuke. As he had not been 
guilty he had not taken the lecture to himself. 
“ Wouldn’t it be fine to have a name for our 
house? ” 

“ Those houses you saw with signs were prob¬ 
ably boarding-houses,” his mother told him. 
“ From what I heard up in the attic this evening 
I am afraid we’d have to name our house ‘ Cross- 
patch Castle.’ You surely wouldn’t care to have 
that name over our door.” 

“ Of course not,” Jimmy returned hastily. 
“ I’d like it to be a nice name—one that would 
mean we liked our new home. I guess I wouldn’t 
want the name over the door. I’d like it to be a 
name just for our family. I can’t think of a 
good one, though.” 

“ Ho; I can think of lots of names,” boasted 
John. He soon found he could not. Every 


THE PROMISE 51 

one he proposed was either too long or not suita¬ 
ble. 

As the boys ate their dinner they kept on try¬ 
ing to think of a good name for the house. Jimmy 
said over and over again that it must be a name 
that would mean happiness. 

“ It has to be one that shows we’re having a 
good time in our home all the time. That home’s 
a happy place.” 

They thought of “ Good Times House,” 
“ Pleasant House,” “ Lovely House ” and 
“ Beautiful Home.” They did not like any of 
these. 

Junior caught the word “ happy ” from hear¬ 
ing Jimmy repeat it with so much emphasis. 
“ Happy, happy, happy,” he warbled, beating 
time on the edge of his plate with his spoon. 
“ I happy. I like here in this house. This are 
a happy house, Muvver. Please give me some 
more milk.” 

“Why-ee!” Jimmy’s eyes opened wide. 
“ What Junie just said would be the best name 
of all—‘ Happy House.’ I kept saying ‘ happy,’ 
but I didn’t say it and ‘ house ’ together. Isn’t 
that a nice name, Mother and Father? Can’t we 
call our house that? ” 


52 JIMMY, JOHN AND JUNIOR 

“ Don’t you believe it might be a hard name 
to live up to? ” asked his father, trying not to 
smile. 

“ I’d try to make it like its name,” was 
Jimmy’s pleading reply. 

“ Yes, I think you would. I am not so sure of 
John. Even Junie would have to do his part to¬ 
ward keeping it a happy house.” Mr. Hopkins 
glanced at Junior who was getting ready to go to 
sleep over his strawberries. “ I’ll have a talk 
with him to-morrow and try to make him under¬ 
stand.” 

Junior did not look toward his father. His 
eyelids were drooping lower and lower. Very 
slowly he steered a spoonful of strawberries to¬ 
ward his left eye instead of his mouth. 

“ I won’t have any more fusses with Junie. 
See if I do,” John declared airily. “ It’s easy 
not to, if you just keep thinking you’re not going 
to every once in a while.” 

“ I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll wait two 
weeks before we name the house,” proposed their 
father. “ During those two weeks we must all try 
to be as cheerful and kind to each other as we 
can. If we do our best to be happy by just being 
good we’ll have earned the right to call our house 


THE PROMISE 


53 


‘ Happy House/ If we don’t do our best, then 
we’ll have to go on longer to earn our name. 
Now remember ”—he leveled a sudden finger at 
the drowsing Junior, who sat up and blinked, 
then at John and Jimmy—“ that means you— 
and you—and you. 5 ’ 


CHAPTER VI 


UP WITH THE SUN" 

“ I hope I wake up good and early to-morrow 
morning,” John yawned to Jimmy as the two 
boys made ready for bed. It was hardly nine 
o’clock but they were glad of this early bed¬ 
time. “ How can I wake up myself ? ” 

“ If you go to bed thinking and thinking until 
you drop to sleep that you want to get up when 
the sun does, maybe you will,” Jimmy sleepily 
suggested. 

It was Jimmy who first opened his eyes the 
next morning. The round, red sun was just com¬ 
ing up from behind a fringe of far-away trees, 
turning the white fluffy clouds banked around it 
to a pale sea-shell pink. Suddenly remembering 
that John wanted very much to get up early, 
Jimmy tiptoed to his brother’s bed. He bent 
down, put his lips close to John’s ear and 
hallooed, “ I want to get up when the sun does.” 

“Ha!” John gave a kind of shriek and 
54 


55 


UP WITH THE SUN 

popped up from his bed like a Jack-in-the-box. 
“ Wh-a-t? U-m-m-m.” He sat on the edge of 
the bed blinking his eyes and wrinkling his nose. 
“ Did I wake up by myself? ” 

“ Course you didn’t.” Jimmy was still laugh¬ 
ing at the way John had shot up from the bed. 
“ I yelled in your ear. See; there’s the sun just 
coming up. I was sure Junie would wake up, 
too, but he didn’t. Let’s hurry and wash 
and dress and go outdoors a while before break¬ 
fast.” 

Jimmy waited only long enough to see that 
John was thoroughly awake, then he took his 
bath towel and ran to the bathroom for his morn¬ 
ing scrub. John soon followed him. It was not 
long before the two were racing across the 
ground to the brown garden square. 

“ This is the place I’d like to have for my gar¬ 
den.” Jimmy waved an arm toward the upper 
western corner of chocolate-colored earth. 

“Oh, no; I want that,” objected John. “I 
like that corner best of all.” 

“ I spoke first for it,” was Jimmy’s rather 
sharp reminder. Then he stopped. He was re¬ 
membering what his father had said last night. 
“Well, I don’t mind taking that other comer 


56 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

down there,” he said, his face clearing. “ Maybe 
Father won't want either of us to have it.” 

“ Oh, I don't care so much which corner I 
have.” John had remembered, too. He was 
not to be outdone by Jimmy. “ Let’s go and 
look at the strawberry bed. Father said the 
strawberries would be real ripe in another 
two weeks. We might find one that was ripe 
already.” 

Away they went on a hunt for a ripe berry. 
They peered very earnestly under the bright 
green leaves and would have been highly joyful 
if they had found a berry that was turning red. 
There were plenty of green ones, some of fair 
size, but it would take fully two more weeks of 
sun and winds and soft spring rains to turn even 
the largest ones red. 

The two happy little explorers went on to the 
raspberry bushes which were getting ready to 
blossom. Here they crowed joyfully over the 
“ loads ” of raspberries they would have. From 
there they paid a visit to the empty chicken 
houses, and met with an early morning surprise. 
One of the little open houses still had several 
light wooden boxes nailed around the inside. 
These had served as nests for the hens. In one of 


UP WITH THE SUN 


57 


them a very large and odd-looking chicken was 
now roosting. 

“ Oh, te, he, he,” chuckled John. “ You’re a 
funny kind of an old hen, Sunny Sunshine.” 

“Look! There’s Taffy in the peach tree.” 
Jimmy pointed to where Taffy was gracefully 
stretched out on a lower limb of the tree. 
“ They’re right at home and not a bit scared. 
They won’t know what to think of the chickens. 
Maybe they’ll think the chicks are birds and go 
after them. You’ll have to be good. Sunny, you 
and Taffy, and not chase the chickens,” Jimmy 
told Sunshine, stroking his silky back. 

“Boys! Jimmy—John-ny.” It was their 
mother’s voice from the house. “Breakfast! 
Hurry! ” 

“ Race you to the house. One, two, three, 
go! ” Jimmy was off as the “ go ” left his lips. 
He reached the house about two feet ahead 
of John. The pair rushed up the steps and 
burst into the kitchen, full of early morning 
elation. 

“ Good-morning, Daddy. We beat you get¬ 
ting up this morning,” Jimmy said, as he and 
John entered the dining-room and found his fa¬ 
ther at table waiting for the others. 


58 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


“You mean you were the alarm clock that 
woke us up,” laughed Mr. Hopkins. 

Jimmy opened surprised eyes, then he grinned 
sheepishly. “ I was only waking John up. I 
didn’t think I made so much noise. We’ve been 
all around the place. The strawberries will soon 
be ripe, oceans of ’em. Are those green things 
sticking quite high out of the ground asparagus? 
Are they good to eat now? ” 

“ They are, and we are going to have some for 
dinner to-night,” answered his mother who was 
just entering the dining-room with a platter of 
bacon and eggs. 

“ Do we have to go to school any more this 
spring? ” John asked anxiously. 

“No; the school here will close within a week 
or two, so you’ll have that much vacation extra. 
I thought you’d like to be at home while I’m 
here, so Mother and I decided to let you off on 
school.” 

Mr. Hopkins was a traveling salesman for a 
large manufacturing house. Each year he had a 
six weeks’ summer vacation, usually the last two 
weeks of July and all of August. This year he 
had taken his vacation earlier so as to move and 
settle his family in Lakeview. 


UP WITH THE SUN 


59 


“ Hurrah! ” cried Jimmy. “ I’m glad we don’t 
have to go to school.” 

“ So am I,” echoed John. “ What are we go¬ 
ing to do first to-day, Daddy? ” 

“ Let me see. We might drive over to the 
poultry farm this morning and pick out our 
chicks. On the way back Mother wishes to do 
the marketing and I must hunt a hardware store. 
I need nails, screws, wire and a lot of such useful 
odds and ends.” 

Jimmy and John were so impatient to be off 
on the ride they could hardly wait to finish break¬ 
fast. Hastily asking to be excused they rushed 
off to the garage. Mr. Hopkins had been there 
before them so it was unlocked and open. Jimmy 
climbed to the driver’s seat of the automobile in 
a twinkling and ran the car out onto the drive. 
His father had been teaching him to handle the 
wheel and he drove very well. 

“ All aboard! All aboard! ” he shouted in his 
deepest voice as he brought the car to a stop be¬ 
fore the side entrance of the house. “ Fast ex¬ 
press for Lakeview. Passengers please have 
your tickets ready! ” 

The chicken farm to which they were going 
was about two miles from Lakeview, but in an 


60 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


opposite direction from Rainbow Lake. By the 
time they reached it the sun was well up in the 
clear blue sky and shone warmly down upon 
them. The farmhouse stood quite a distance back 
from the pike and was reached by a private road. 
It was an old-fashioned gray house with a red 
roof and a cupola. It stood in the middle of a 
sloping lawn planted thickly with trees and 
shrubs. Before they came to it they could see 
the bright stretches of wire behind it and the rows 
of small gray buildings, each with its red roof. 

Mr. Hopkins stopped the car on the drive op¬ 
posite a long side veranda where a man sat read¬ 
ing a newspaper. “ Good-morning,” he called 
out. “ Are you Mr. Ingram? ” 

The man had dropped his paper and was com¬ 
ing across the grass when Mr. Hopkins spoke. 
He was tall and stout and wore a kind of yellow¬ 
ish-colored linen suit and a broad-brimmed 
Panama hat. He had curly gray hair, a round 
red face and twinkling blue eyes. 

“ Good-day,” he answered in a large, hearty 
voice. “ Yes, I’m Ingram. Are you the Mr. 
Hopkins who wrote me about those chickens? I 
was looking for you this morning.” 

The two men shook hands and Mr. Hopkins 


VP WITH THE SUN 


61 


introduced the chicken fancier to his wife and the 
boys. Then they got out of the car and went 
with the chicken man to see the wonders of the 
big farm. 

As they went along past row after row of 
wired-in squares, the boys saw enough to keep 
them constantly exclaiming, “ Oh, look at this! 
See those chickens over there! Oh, Daddy, buy 
some of that kind!” Some of the parks had 
shade trees. Under a big apple tree in one park 
the boys saw a man digging up the earth with a 
spade. Around him stood a solemn circle of 
chickens watching his every movement. 

“ What’s he doing? Is he going to bury some¬ 
thing?” John and Jimmy asked almost in the 
same breath. 

“ Nope. He’s only digging up the ground so 
the chickens can pick it over,” Mr. Ingram told 
them. “ They know he’s doing it for their ben¬ 
efit. That’s why they’re watching him so closely. 
Can’t fool those hens. They know.” 

Mr. Hopkins picked out about sixty-five chick¬ 
ens of the best breeds. Ajnong them were the 
whife ones that Jimmy admired and the bronze- 
browns that John liked. Junior took a fancy to 
a large gray rooster with an especially brilliant 


62 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


red comb, and his father bought the rooster just 
to please the little boy. When it lifted its scar¬ 
let head and crowed loudly two or three times, 
Junior was enchanted. He clapped his hands in 
glee and tried to crow, too. 

“ What are you going to call your rooster, 
Junie? ” Jimmy asked when at last they were on 
the road home from the farm. 

“ Cock-a-doodle-doo,” Junior instantly said. 

“ That's not a name, Junie. That’s only what 
the rooster says when he crows.” 

“ He are a cock-a-doodle-doo,” Junior per¬ 
sisted. “ He are a doodle bird, Jimmy. I can 
play with him and have fun.” 

“ I guess his name must be Doodle,” chuckled 
Jimmy. 

“Yes; Doodle.” Junior wagged his head in 
approval. So the stately, handsome rooster, that 
was to become one of Junior’s most valued play¬ 
mates, was named Doodle. 


CHAPTER VII 


DICK 

The hardware store was the next stop the 
Hopkins made. 

“Why, that's an ice-cream place!” Jimmy 
cried as his father stopped the car in front of an 
old white house with a veranda around two sides 
of it. A long flight of steps led up to the veranda 
and on the veranda were a number of small ta¬ 
bles and chairs. 

Jimmy and John thought it was a queer kind 
of hardware store but very interesting. It 
seemed to be crowded full of a little of every¬ 
thing. The floor was pretty well covered with 
washtubs, boilers, granite and tin ware, gas and 
oil stoves, piles of dishes, baskets and all the most 
necessary articles for housekeeping. The count¬ 
ers had rows and rows of boxes of nails, screws 
and fixtures, but the shelves were full of toys, 
stationery and school supplies. There was a 
newspaper and magazine stand, too, and a row 
63 


64 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

of ice-cream freezers. There was even a row of 
candy jars and a glass showcase filled with dif¬ 
ferent kinds of chocolates. 

Junior had caught sight of a crisp, pale brown 
cone which a woman was filling with pink ice¬ 
cream for a small girl. He was circling the ice¬ 
cream counter on his toes, chanting, “ Muvver, 
you please give me some ice-cream. Muvver, I 
want two cones; one strawb’rry and one choklit.” 

He teetered up and down with impatience un¬ 
til the coveted cones were placed in his hands, 
then ran off to the veranda and sat down on the 
steps in the sunshine. 

John and Jimmy and their mother sat at one 
of the veranda tables for their cream. Mr. Hop¬ 
kins didn’t want any. He was far too busy sort¬ 
ing out different sizes of screws and nails from 
the boxes on a counter. As soon as the boys had 
finished the ice-cream they went back into the 
store for another look around it. 

While they were poking about, talking to¬ 
gether in low voices a boy came walking into the 
store. He was about as tall as Jimmy, but 
thinner. He was bareheaded and his thick 
brown hair curled tight to his head. His eyes 
were bright blue and his face was covered with 


DICK 


65 


freckles. As he walked past John and Jimmy 
he gave them a quick, bright look out of his blue 
eyes, then smiled a little. In a second he had 
disappeared through a door at the back of the 
store. 

“ He must live here.” John had watched the 
boy out of sight. “ Didn’t he have a lot of 
freckles, though? He’s about as old as we are, I 
guess.” 

“He looked like a nice boy; not cranky or 
mean, you know. Probably we won’t know him 
until we go to school next fall. That’s when 
we’ll begin to know the fellows. It’s a good thing 
you and I have each other to go around with this 
summer.” 

While Jimmy was saying this the curly-haired, 
freckle-faced boy came back into the store again. 
He strolled along until he came directly opposite 
to John and Jimmy. 

“ Hello,” he said after a minute in a friendly 
voice. “ How do you like our store? ” 

“ Hello,” John and Jimmy said together. 

“ It’s a fine store.” Jimmy returned the boy’s 
smile. “ What a lot of different things you have 
in it.” 

“ My father says it’s a junk shop.” The boy 


66 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

laughed outright, a funny, merry laugh, and 
glanced about him with a comical air. “ I guess 
it is, too. He has to sell a lot of stuff that isn’t 
hardware because folks come in and ask for it 
and think his store’s no good if he doesn’t keep 
what they want. Sometimes I have to stay in on 
Saturdays and help straighten up things. Do I 
like that? Oh, no! Would I rather go swim¬ 
ming? Ask me.” His whole face lighted up 
roguishly. 

“ Where do you go swimming? ” John asked 
eagerly. 

“ Down to the lake. Some of the big fellows 
have a spring-board there and they let those of 
us kids who are good divers use it. You have to 
be a real swimmer. The water’s deep.” 

“ How deep is it at the spring-board? Isn’t 
there any other place in the lake along near the 
shore that isn’t very deep? ” quizzed John. 

“ It’s about twelve feet deep at the board, but 
it’s over your head all along the shore. There’s 
a creek ’bout a mile from here where the little 
kids go swimming.” 

Both the Hopkins boys’ faces fell at Dick’s 
answer. They were fairly sure their father 
would not let them go swimming in the lake. 


DICK 


67 


“ I can swim eight different ways/’ Dick 
proudly boasted, “ and I can go as fast as—as— 
anything through the water.” 

“ Jimmy and I can both swim fine.” John was 
not to be kept in the background. “We can 
swim different ways, too. My father taught us 
to swim when we were little bits of boys. We 
learned at the seashore.” 

“ That’s fine. I’ll take you swimming some 
day,” offered the other boy, his eyes sparkling 
at the information. “ Say, you just came here 
to live, didn’t you? I never saw you before and 
I know every fellow in Lakeview.” 

“ Yes, we came yesterday and we live in a big 
green house over that way. I forgot to ask my 
father the name of the street we live on,” Jimmy 
returned. 

“ Oh, I know where that house is. Mr. Burns 
used to live there. He didn’t like me very well.” 
The boy gave a little laugh. “ I put a ticktack 
on his window last Hallowe’en. I was hiding 
under the window and all of a sudden he raised 
it and leaned out and saw me before I could duck 
and run. He said I was a very mis-chee-vous 
boy. That’s the way he said it.” 

John and Jimmy laughed. 


68 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

“My name’s Dick,” he went on briskly. 
“ Course it’s really Richard Grant Carter, but 
everybody who knows me says Dick or Dickie. 
Now go ahead and tell me your names.” 

“Mine’s James Arthur Hopkins and his is 
John Edward Hopkins. He’s ten and I’m 
eleven. How old are you and what grade are 
you in at school? ” Jimmy had made up his mind 
that he was going to like Dick. 

“ I’m twelve. I’m in Seventh A. I’m going 
to be promoted when school closes to Eighth B. 
Our school closes next Friday. I went to school 
this morning but I got excused early to do an 
errand for my mother.” 

“ We’re not going to school until next fall. 
We’re glad of it,” broke in John. “ We are go¬ 
ing to make a garden and take care of a lot of 
chickens we bought this morning at the chicken 
farm.” 

“ We’ve had chickens and a garden ever since 
I was a baby, so I’m not crazy about them. I’d 
rather have a good time swimming or at the 
movies than pull weeds in a garden and feed 
chickens,” Dick said frankly. 

“ Well, we’ve always lived in a big city where 
we couldn’t have a garden or chickens. That’s 


DICK 69 

why we think it will he fine to have them.” 
Jimmy spoke with enthusiasm. 

“ Anyway, you can play some of the time,” 
argued Dick. “ I’ll be around to see you in a 
few days; maybe after school or on Saturday. I 
have to go now. My mother’s writing a note. I 
have to take it. Guess it’s done by this time. 
Good-bye. I’ll see you again.” He started off, 
hands in his pockets. 

“ Come up to our house soon,” Jimmy called 
after Dick. Dick nodded over one shoulder as 
he disappeared through the half-open door. 

“ He’s a nice fellow, even if he is mis-chee- 
vous.” Jimmy mimicked Dick’s pronunciation 
of the word. “ I believe he’d play fair in 
games and not want to have his own way all the 
time.” 

“ I don’t think he’d get mad at every little 
thing,” John said positively. “ I hate to play 
with a boy who’s always getting mad.” 

They were still talking about Dick when their 
father called to them that he was ready to go. 
Mrs. Hopkins and Junior were out on the 
veranda. They all got into the car again and 
Mr. Hopkins drove to a grocery and meat store. 
This time John and Jimmy stayed in the car 


70 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

while their father, mother and Junior went into 
the store. 

Presently Mr. Hopkins came out of the 
grocery carrying a wooden box filled with pack¬ 
ages. A clerk walked beside him with another 
box of groceries. Junior marched along ahead, 
a package of cereal under each arm. 

On the way home John began telling his fa¬ 
ther about Dick and of how he went swimming 
in the lake. “ He says he’ll take Jimmy and me 
swimming when school’s out,” John ventured. 
“ Can’t we go, if we swim where the water isn’t 
very deep? ” 

“ No, sir.” His father’s tones were very de¬ 
cided. “ You are not to go near the lake with 
this Dick, or with anyone but myself. You boys 
aren’t strong enough swimmers to be trusted in 
deep water unless I am with you.” 

“ Can we go down and just see the lake by 
ourselves; only walk along the shore?” John 
asked coaxingly. 

“No; you are to keep away from the lake,” 
was the stern reply. “ Now remember that, 
John.” 

“ But Dick-” 

“ Never mind about Dick. I’m not sure that 



DICK 71 

I care to have you boys play with this boy who 
seems to do about as he pleases.” 

“ Can’t we have him come to see us? ” John 
looked alarmed. He wished he hadn’t said any¬ 
thing about Dick. “ We asked him to and he 
said he would.” 

“ Yes; he may come to see you once . Your 
mother and I can then judge if he’s the right sort 
of playmate for you and Jimmy. If we decide 
that he isn’t—then you are to keep away from 
him, too.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


A BUSY DAY 

“ Are we going to plant our gardens this after¬ 
noon? ” Jimmy asked his father at luncheon. He 
was impatient to start his garden. 

“No; I’m sorry, but I’ve too many other 
things to do inside the house,” Mr. Hopkins said 
regretfully. “ Besides I must drive down to the 
station to meet the three-thirty train. Netta’s 
coming on that. We’ll make an early start at the 
gardens in the morning. The sooner they are 
planted the better. You may go with me to the 
station.” 

“ You boys had better unpack those boxes that 
hold your books and playthings,” advised their 
mother. “ Those you don’t want to use take up 
to the attic.” 

John and Jimmy would have preferred run¬ 
ning about outdoors, but they went at the task 
of unpacking their books and toys cheerfully 
72 


A BUSY DAY 


73 


enough. Junior kindly offered to help them. 
After he had fallen down five steps of the attic 
stairs, pounded his thumb with a hammer, almost 
stood on his head while diving into a deep box 
to see what it held, managed to get in the way 
every two minutes and wound up by spattering 
himself from head to heels with a can of white 
paint which he found in the bathroom, he was 
whisked away by his mother for his afternoon 
nap. 

“ I’m glad Junie’s gone to take his nap,” 
sighed John thankfully. “ I tried not to get mad 
at him, but he’s about forty-three times as mis- 
chee-vous as Dick. I wish I hadn’t said any¬ 
thing to Daddy about Dick and going down to 
the lake.” 

“ I knew Daddy wouldn’t let us go swimming 
in the lake with Dick,” Jimmy returned wisely. 
“ I think Dick is all right. Maybe his folks don’t 
think it’s anything much for him to go swimming 
in such deep water. I’d rather go swimming with 
Daddy along. Lots of times a crowd of hoys go 
swimming by themselves and one of ’em is 
drowned.” 

“ Ho, we would never get drowned,” scoffed 
John. “ We know how to swim.” 


74 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

“ Yes, but if you got a cramp you might drown 
even if you were a good swimmer. I think-” 

“ Boys! ” Mr. Hopkins’ voice interrupted from 
the down-stairs hall. 

“Ready!” They left the remainder of the 
books piled on the floor and hustled down-stairs. 
They caught up with Mr. Hopkins just as he 
reached the car which was standing on the drive. 

This time the front seat was Jimmy’s. John 
sat on one of the little seats in the tonneau where 
he could lean forward and talk to the two in 
front. The train was on time and Netta stepped 
off it, a suitcase in each hand, her red-cheeked 
Irish face all smiles. 

Both boys piled into the back of the car with 
Netta. They were anxious to tell her about the 
new home and to hear from her what Tipperary, 
her pet dog, had been doing. Tipperary was an 
Irish setter; as much Irish as Netta. He could 
count to six by barking, could sit up, shake hands, 
play dead, pretend to walk lame, carry packages 
and do many other clever tricks. Netta had once 
brought him to the Hopkins’ house in the city 
for a day, so the boys felt as though Tipperary 
belonged a little bit to them, too. 

“ It’s a foine time yez will be havin’ wid run- 



A BUSY DAY 


75 


nin’ in the fields and diggin’ in the garden,” 
Netta declared heartily. “ An’ Joonyer will be 
growin’ like a weed.” 

“ You’ll have a good time, too, Netta,” Jimmy 
told her. “ Your room is nicer than the one you 
had in the city, and we’re going to have lots of 
fruit pretty soon and asparagus for supper and 
maybe Tipperary can come out here this summer 
for a while.” 

“An’ them two fat Zoo cats would be scratchin’ 
me poor Tip, I’m afraid,” laughed Netta. 
“ Sure, they’ll roam through the grass and grow 
big as a couple of taggers. Tip would be enj’y- 
ing of hisself out here. I’ll be tellin’ yez now 
about him for when I get to the house I’ll have 
no more time. It’s your ma’ll be needin’ me.” 

She delighted the boys by telling them how 
Tip had brought a little wooden horse on wheels 
into the house and laid it in her lap. 

“ Would yez believe it? ” she cried. “ An’ it 
was all along the street, Dinny, me nephew, has 
to go with the little wooden horse to see who 
owns it. Poor Tip! He was waggin’ of his tail 
tickled as could be that he was makin’ me a 
prisent! ” 

“ Tip is about the smartest dog in the world,” 


76 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


was John’s opinion. “ The only present Sun¬ 
shine ever brought us was an old dead rat.” 

Netta finished telling them this funny trick of 
Tip’s just as the car turned into the Hopkins’ 
drive. Mrs. Hopkins was seated on the veranda 
and Netta promptly forgot John and Jimmy and 
hurried from the car and into the house with her 
mistress, expressing loud, Irish admiration of 
everything as she went. 

By this time Junior had finished his nap and 
come out to the chicken-yard where his father and 
the boys were preparing for the arrival of the 
chickens. He hustled about gathering up stray 
pieces of broken-up boxes and singing at the top 
of his voice, “Doodle, Doodle, Doodle! Doo¬ 
dle’s cornin’ to-morrow! I are goin’ to make a 
house for Doodle! ” 

He stuck the ragged pieces of light board into 
the ground and made a funny, uneven square of 
them, then laid some larger pieces on top for a 
roof. As fast as he put the roof on it fell off 
again. 

“ Ho, ho! ” John exclaimed. “ The first time 
Doodle goes near that house it’ll fall down. Let 
me show you how to make the roof stay on.” 

Junior flashed John a quick look of suspicion. 


A BUSY DAY 


77 


When he saw that John was not trying to tease 
him he let his brother sit down beside him. John 
managed to wedge two crosspieces at the comers 
so that they would remain firm. He then placed 
some other bits of wood over them in such way 
that they did not slide off. 

Junior was noisily pleased with Doodle’s new 
house. “ You are a nice, good boy to-day, 
Johnny!” He pranced gleefully around the 
crooked little shack. “ To-morrow I goin’ to put 
Doodle in his house.” 

“ You can’t keep him there, Junie,” Jimmy 
told the little boy. “ Doodle will want to run 
and scratch in the ground for worms just the 
same as the other chickens. I don’t believe he 
could more than stand up in that house.” 

“ I goin’ to tie a string on him,” Junior de¬ 
clared. “ I goin’ to lead him around and 
around.” 

“Maybe,” laughed Jimmy. “Poor Doodle! 
I guess he’ll wish he was back at the chicken 
farm.” 

Before dinner that night the three Js had a 
spirited game of tag out on the lawn. It was 
mostly to please Junior. John and Jimmy would 
“tag” him on the shoulder and say, “Tag; 


78 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


you’re it.” They would pretend to run very fast, 
but they managed to get near enough to him oc¬ 
casionally to allow him to “ tag ” them. It was 
John who had proposed playing tag. He was 
really trying hard to do his part toward naming 
the house. Junior understood, too, that he 
must not get cross with John. His mother had 
talked to him about it and he had looked quite 
solemn. 

“Oh, dear, I’m so sle-e-py! Oh, m-y!” 
yawned Jimmy as he and John went up-stairs to 
bed shortly after nine o’clock. “ We’ve had such 
a fine time to-day, and to-morrow’s going to be 
better than ever.” 

“ I’m sleepier’n I ever was in my life before,” 
John returned with the companion yawn to 
Jimmy’s. “ I didn’t fight once with Junie to¬ 
day—not the least little bit of a fuss. I didn’t 
try much, either. I won’t ever have any more 
fights with him. Anyway, I’m too big to get mad 
at such a little boy.” 

“ You — might — have — one — some day,” 
Jimmy warned between yawns as he drowsily 
fumbled the buttons on the coat of his pajamas. 

“ No, sir-ee! ” emphasized John. 

And that was the last word said that night. 


A BUSY DAY 


79 


Jimmy tumbled into bed and went instantly to 
sleep and John followed him to slumberland not 
more than two minutes after. 


CHAPTER IX 


DOODLE 

Next day brought the chickens. The three 
Js spent the greater part of the morning in the 
chicken-yard getting acquainted with the cluck¬ 
ing hens and the high-stepping, scarlet-combed 
roosters. 

Junior immediately began Doodle’s training. 
He pursued the frightened, squawking rooster 
with outspread arms and lusty shouts of “ Come, 
Doodle, Doodle, Doodle! ” Poor Doodle did not 
know what to make of such a boisterous recep¬ 
tion and ran for his life. The other chickens ran 
and squawked, too, and the whole yard was soon 
in an uproar. 

“ You catch him, Jimmy,” Junior finally ap¬ 
pealed to his brother after he had run until he 
was tired and Doodle still kept out of his reach. 
John and Jimmy were both laughing at the 
frantic race between Junior and the big rooster. 
“ I want to pet him. He are my chicken.” 

80 


DOODLE 


81 


“ You can’t pet him yet , goosie,” John said. 
“ You’ll have to wait until he’s been in the chicken 
park a long time. Then maybe he’ll run away 
just the same. He doesn’t know his name’s 
Doodle.” 

“ But I want to hold him.” Junior was ready 
to cry. “ I are goin’ to put him in his new house.” 

“ Oh, you mustn’t try to put him in that— 
ahem—house,” Jimmy snickered, “ for months. 
I wouldn’t tie a string on him, Junie. You must 
try to tame him. Make him like you and then he 
will come when you call him.” 

“ How? ” Junior was not clear as to how he 
might charm Doodle into tameness. 

“ I don’t know.” Jimmy stood and thought 
for a minute. “ Oh, wait a second! I’ll show 
you something, Junie.” Seized with a bright 
idea he started for the house at a run. He was 
gone about five minutes. When he came back 
he was carrying a large round pan filled with 
yellow corn. On top of it was a little empty pan. 

“This is the way to do, Junie.” Jimmy 
dipped the little pan into the corn and handed it 
full to Junior. “ Take the pan and walk slowly 
over near where Doodle is now. When you get 
quite close to him, say, ‘ Here, Doodle,’ not loud, 


82 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

though, and scatter a little corn right in front of 
him. Then wait till he eats it, and walk along. 
See if he won’t follow you.” 

“ Yes, and so will all the other chickens,” pre¬ 
dicted John. “ Look at them already.” 

The chickens had come running from all cor¬ 
ners of the park, heads up, their bright eyes fixed 
on the corn pans. Doodle had left off telling his 
troubles to a crowd of his friends and begun 
stepping warily toward the very person he had 
just run from. Junior, with a pan of corn, was 
altogether different from that small, wild boy 
who had run and flapped and yelled at him. 
Doodle grew bold and went so close to Junior 
he could have reached out and touched him. 

With a chuckle of triumph Junior flung a 
handful of corn squarely in front of the rooster. 

“ Keep on giving him corn, Junie,” Jimmy di¬ 
rected. “ I’m going to call the other chicks over 
here.” Jimmy began: “Here, chick, chick, 
chick! ” He scattered large handfuls of corn on 
the ground and most of the flock left Junior and 
rushed after him. Doodle seemed to know when 
he was well off. Junior had dumped about half 
of his pan of corn in a heap in front of his new 
pet. Doodle and a select group of his friends 


DOODLE 


83 


gathered about the corn heap and had a party. 
When Junior’s little pan was empty he wanted 
to refill it from Jimmy’s, but Jimmy had given 
all his corn out, too. 

“ Wait until late this afternoon,” Jimmy told 
him, “ then you can feed Doodle again. The 
chickens have had as much corn as they need now. 
If you fed Doodle all he’d eat he’d be so fat 
pretty soon he couldn’t walk.” 

“ Yes, and don’t try to catch him, Junie,” 
cautioned John. “ If you feed him twice a day, 
he will soon get to know you. Maybe he’ll let 
you pet him sometime.” 

“ To-morrow? ” Junior asked hopefully. 

“ No, course not. Maybe not for two weeks 
or a month. You can tell when he gets over 
being afraid of you. You mustn’t yell at him 
and spread out your arms, either.” 

Junior looked disappointed but said, “ I don’t 
scare Doodle any more.” 

“ We’ll start our planting this afternoon, 
boys,” was the welcome news Mr. Hopkins gave 
out at luncheon that day. “ I want each of you 
to see what good farmers you can be this sum¬ 
mer. Even Junior must have a garden.” 

Directly after luncheon Mr. Hopkins took 


84 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

stakes, tough string and a heavy wooden mallet 
and went out with his boys to the brown plowed 
square. Jimmy got the upper corner space he 
had wished for, and John the lower one on the 
same side. The two boys had the whole side be¬ 
tween them. Their father measured off an even 
half for each and staked it. 

“ There,” he said, when the boys had helped 
him complete the task, “ now we’ll see which of 
you can win a prize growing vegetables.” 

“ What kind of prize? ” John quizzed. “ Do 
you mean you’ll give us one? ” 

“ Yes. I shan’t tell you what it will be, 
though. I don’t know yet myself. I’ll make it 
something you both want. But you’ll have to 
keep your gardens in A number 1 shape to win 
it.” 

The other half of the plowed square was di¬ 
vided into three parts. Half of it was for the 
family garden and the remainder was divided 
into two smaller spaces, one for the growing of 
dahlias and a little garden plot for Junior. 
Junior had watched his father briefly, found the 
staking off not interesting and trotted over to the 
chicken-house for a look at his idolized Doodle. 

“We can’t begin to finish our planting to- 


DOODLE 


85 


day,” Mr. Hopkins said, as the three sat on the 
top step of the shady back porch while he sorted 
packages of seeds from a square pasteboard box 
he held on his lap. He called out the names of 
the vegetables as he sorted and gave John and 
Jimmy whatever they asked for. “ We’ll buy 
our tomato and cabbage plants instead of grow¬ 
ing them from the seed. They’ll grow faster and 
do better.” 

“ It won’t take very long to plant such little 
packages of seed,” John briskly declared. “ I 
can plant mine in about ten minutes.” 

“ Don’t you ever believe it.” His father 
laughed. - ‘ You can’t plant them any old way, 
Johnny. The ground has to be prepared just 
so. Some kinds of seeds need to be planted 
deeper than others. It will take us the rest of 
the afternoon to plant your gardens. I shall not 
touch mine to-day.” 

John and Jimmy had long since decided what 
they were going to grow. John stuck to his pref¬ 
erence for lettuce, radishes, corn, string-beans and 
cabbages. Jimmy was for corn, tomatoes, beets, 
cucumbers and onions. He also wanted pump¬ 
kins and watermelons. His father had no seed 
of either of these last but promised to buy some. 


86 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


As both boys had chosen corn, Mr. Hopkins 
started the planting with that vegetable. He 
showed the willing young farmers how to dig the 
proper hole for the seed corn and how far apart 
to place the hills. After that John sowed his 
radish seed and Jimmy his onion and beet seeds, 
and so on, their father directing the work. 

Junior’s garden was still only a blank space 
with a good-sized hole at one side of it. When 
the digging began Junior deserted Doodle and 
came over to take a hand in things. He clamored 
to dig, too. To keep him out of mischief his 
father led him over to his own garden plot and 
gave him a hoe. He made the dirt fly with it for 
a few minutes then he grew tired of that method, 
sat down on the ground and scooped out the soft 
earth with his hands. By the time Netta came 
to carry him off for his nap, he was streaked with 
dirt from head to foot. 

The next morning his father took him out and 
helped him plant his own little garden. He had 
corn and beans and radishes and beets. He de¬ 
clared that when his corn was ripe he would give 
it all to Doodle. That afternoon the boys and 
their father drove to a neighboring farm and 
bought cabbage and tomato plants. John 


DOODLE 


87 


planted his cabbages and Jimmy his tomatoes as 
soon as they reached home. After they were in 
the ground and had been watered to revive them 
the boys were fascinated by the straight rows of 
little green plants. 

“ It seems fine to see something growing so 
quick when we only planted our gardens yester¬ 
day. A good hard rain will soon make the seeds 
come up.” John squinted up at the sky to see if 
there were any signs of a shower. 

“Look, John!” Jimmy cried suddenly. His 
eyes were fixed on a hoy who had just turned in 
at their gate. “ That’s the boy we were talking 
to in the hardware store. That’s Dick. He’s 
coming to see us. Let’s go and meet him.” 

Jimmy started rapidly in Dick’s direction. 
Dick grinned when he saw the boys approaching 
him, his deep dimples in strong evidence. 

“ Hello! ” he greeted. “ I thought I’d come 
and see you.” This time he was wearing a gray 
cap over his curls. He took it off and twirled it 
joyfully. He was evidently much pleased to see 
the Hopkins boys again. 

“ Hello. We’re glad you came,” was Jimmy’s 
hospitable return. “ We’ve just finished plant¬ 
ing our gardens.” 


88 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


“ Our garden’s up and green. Pretty soon I’ll 
have to pull weeds.” Dick made a face by way 
of showing his distaste for this task. “ Say, I 
want you to come to our school next Friday with 
me. We’re going to have a good-bye party. 
Speak pieces and sing songs and all that out on 
the lawn. Then we have cake and ice-cream and 
lemonade and play games. Every year the school 
has it. I asked the teacher if I could bring you 
and she said, ‘ yes.’ It’s the last day of school, 
you know.” 

“ Come on into the house and ask my mother.” 
Jimmy’s face had grown brighter and brighter 
as he listened to Dick. He thought Dick very 
nice to invite them and he was sure his mother 
would feel the same. If she did then she would 
let them have Dick for a friend. If his mother 
liked Dick, then his father would, too. 

John was looking pleased, too. He was glad 
that it was to be a school party. He and Jimmy 
would surely be allowed to go to that. 

Mrs. Hopkins sat in the living-room reading a 
magazine. She glanced up and smiled as the 
three boys came to a stop in front of her. Their 
eager faces showed they had something important 
to ask. 


DOODLE 89 

“ Mother, this is Dick,” Jimmy said. “ He 
wants us to go to a school party next Friday.” 

“ My name’s Richard Carter—my whole 
name,” Dick explained, his freckled face flushing 
with shyness. “ My father keeps the hardware 
store.” 

“ So this is Richard. The boys were tell¬ 
ing me about you. I am glad you came to see 
us.” 

“ I—yes’m. I’m glad I came, too. I’d like 
John and Jimmy to go to school with me next 
Friday.” Dick went on to tell Mrs. Hopkins 
about the party on the school lawn. John and 
Jimmy held their- breath for fear the answer 
might be “ no.” 

“ Yes, they may go. If you will come for 
them next Friday afternoon, Mr. Hopkins will 
take you all' to school in the car.” 

“ Yes, ma’am. That’ll be fine.” Dick smiled 
broadly. He was so delighted he could hardly 
stand still. He wriggled about, crumpled his 
soft cap in one hand and said, “ I guess I’d bet¬ 
ter go now. I’ll come on Friday at one o’clock. 
School begins at twenty minutes past one. It’s 
only a little way from here.” 

“ Can’t you stay and see our chickens and 


90 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


everything? ” John asked rather mournfully. 
He didn’t want Dick to hurry away. 

“ Nope. It’s most supper time. My mother 
lets me go where I like, but I have to be home 
for meals and never out after eight o’clock unless 
she knows where I am. If I don’t do as I ought, 
then she makes me stay in for a week; after school 
and in the evenings.” 

Mrs. Hopkins smiled into Dick’s merry blue 
eyes at this confession. He smiled back at her 
so honestly and squarely that she decided in 
favor of the freckle-faced boy even though he 
did go swimming in the lake. 

After the three were outdoors again, John said 
abruptly, “ My father won’t let us go down to 
the lake without him. He’s afraid something 
might happen to us, even if we didn’t go in swim¬ 
ming.” 

“ Then you’d better stay away from there,” 
was Dick’s quick advice. “ My folks don’t care 
if I go. If they said I couldn’t, then I wouldn’t.” 

Jimmy saved up this remark to tell at the din¬ 
ner table that night. He was sure his mother 
liked Dick and he wanted his father to be of the 
same mind. 

“He seems to be a manly, honest boy,” she 


BOODLE 


91 


said to her husband when Jimmy had finished 
telling what Dick had said about going swim¬ 
ming. “I told him the boys might go to school 
with him to the party next Friday. And you 
are to take them in your car.” 

“ That settles it then. Dick is going to be a 
friend of the family,” laughed Mr. Hopkins. 

“ And may we go to see him and have him here 
to play with us whenever we want to? ” Jimmy 
asked eagerly. 

“ I guess so. Only don’t get into mischief, the 
three of you.” 

“ And when we name our house may we have 
a party and ask Dick to dinner? And may we 
have black chocolate cake and peach ice-cream? ” 
both youngsters questioned at once. 

“ Ask your mother.” Mr. Hopkins put his 
hands to his ears in dismay. 

“ Yes, to both questions. Remember to do 
your part and I will do the rest,” Mrs. Hopkins 
significantly reminded. 

“ We’ll have to be careful how we act till the 
two weeks are up,” Jimmy said soberly to John 
that night after they had gone to bed. They 
were too full of excitement over the pleasures to 
come to be very sleepy. “ It wouldn’t be nice to 


92 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


invite Dick to a party and then do something so 
that we couldn't name the house. Because, then, 
we couldn't have a party. We’d have to tell him 
not to come.” 


CHAPTER X 


A DISAGREEABLE BOY 

Promptly at one o’clock the following Friday 
Dick came for the boys, radiant-faced and 
dressed in his Sunday best. He wore a new 
brown suit, tan oxfords and stockings and a 
brown cap, set well over his curls. His blue eyes 
shone out from his freckled face like two stars 
and his lively skip up on the veranda showed just 
how joyous he was feeling. 

“ Hello, fellows,” he greeted. John and 
Jimmy were hanging about the veranda rail wait¬ 
ing for him. “ Did you think I wasn’t coming? ” 

“ We knew you’d come,” Jimmy assured. 
“ There’s the car on the drive. Daddy just went 
back to the garage for a minute. He’s waiting to 
take us. Here he comes now.” 

Mrs. Hopkins now came out on the veranda. 
“ How do you do, Richard? ” She gave Dick 
her hand. He beamed more broadly than ever. 
“ It’s so kind of you to give my boys this good 
93 


94 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

time. They have something to tell you which I 
hope will please you. Now hurry along, all three 
of you.” 

The boys scampered across the lawn to the car 
and the next moment were on the way to school. 
It took them not more than five minutes to reach 
the school building. That gave them plenty of 
time to go to Dick’s room before school began. 
Dick’s teacher shook hands with them and asked 
them about their school work. 

“ I think you will be in my room next year,” 
she said. “ Now you may sit on one of the front 
recitation benches. You may sit with John and 
James, Richard. When we march out to the 
school yard they may march behind you.” 

John and Jimmy would have liked to turn their 
heads for a good survey of the rows of children 
behind them, but they were too politely shy to 
do so. 

“We will sing some of our songs until we re¬ 
ceive the signal to pass out to the lawn,” Miss 
Farlee, the teacher, said. 

The children sang three songs, then a little girl 
in white suddenly opened the schoolroom door 
and called “ Time ” in a high, sweet voice. Next 
instant she was gone and Miss Farlee gave the 


A DISAGREEABLE BOY 


95 


word “ Rise,” then, “ First aisle forward and 
pass out into the corridor. Form in double line 
and wait for the signal.” 

The children had practiced this maneuver 
twice before so they did it very well. Jimmy and 
John found themselves marching down the corri¬ 
dor behind Dick and a tall, thin boy who shuffled 
his feet as he walked. From a room across the 
hall another double line had come. The two lines 
kept the width of the corridor apart but many 
of the children looked across and smiled or made 
merry little signs to one another. 

The procession went down one long flight of 
stairs and then on down a broad, short flight, 
passed through a wide side corridor and stepped 
out onto the lawn. Dick’s room and the one 
across the hall were the higher grades, so they 
were the last to come down-stairs. All the other 
children were on the lawn waiting for them. The 
pupils of each room stood formed in a square with 
a space of a few feet between each square. 

They all stood very still, eyes on the vocal 
teacher who was to lead them in the opening song. 
It was “ America,” and it sounded very beautiful 
as sung by so many clear, strong voices. After 
“ America ” ten little girls in short, white, fluffy 


96 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


skirts, with gold-colored sashes and gilt crowns 
on their heads gave a fairy dance on the green in 
a square reserved for the performers. A tall boy 
then sang a song. He sang so well he had to 
come back and sing again. 

After that a primary teacher gave a recitation, 
eight boys sang in a double quartette and sixteen 
of the larger girls of the highest grade gave an 
Indian club drill. The principal of the school 
gave the children a short talk and then came the 
closing song, “ Our Schooldays Now Are Over.” 

At one end of the lawn were two long tables. 
On one were three large punch-bowls of fruit 
lemonade with little glass cups around them. 
The other was decked with plate after plate of 
cakes. Behind this table was a row of ice-cream 
freezers. These tables were in charge of the 
mothers of some of the children. As soon as the 
closing song was over the teachers formed the 
pupils into long single lines to go for their treat. 
A certain number at a time went up to the tables 
until all had been served. The lemonade they 
might help themselves to. There were rustic 
benches set about under the trees. Some of the 
children sat down on them to enjoy their dainties. 
Others plumped down on the short green grass. 


A DISAGREEABLE BOY 


97 


Dick took John and Jimmy to meet the crowd 
of hoys he liked best to play with. There were 
half a dozen of them and they were very friendly 
to the two Js. A game of catch was soon started 
at one end of the lawn where no one would be 
likely to be hit by the ball. Jimmy’s pitching 
won him the loud praise of the other boys. The 
youngsters began to plan for a real baseball 
team. 

“ See that fat hoy over there; the one in the 
gray suit? ” Charlie Newton pointed across the 
grass to where a large, red-faced boy stood, his 
hands in his pockets. “ He says our fellows can’t 
play ball. He’s the captain of a team and they 
can’t play for sour apples. He can’t play ball 
himself. He’s a big—a—a—big, stupid old 
goose. He lives in that white house on the street 
next to your street.” 

“ Oh, yes. I saw him the other day. Their 
back lot is right next to ours. They have a wire 
fence all around their lot with jaggers on it,” 
Jimmy nodded. 

“ Don’t you ever go near him,” warned 
Charlie. “ He’s a mean, rough boy. He does 
lots of real bad mischief and lays it to other 
boys.” 


98 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

Jimmy looked the fat boy over. He thought 
he had a disagreeable face. “ He’s older than 
we are, isn’t he? ” 

“ Not more’n a year. He’s about thirteen, but 
he’s only in Six B. He tries to go around with 
the high-school fellows but they won’t look at 
him.” 

“ I shan’t go near him.” Jimmy shut his lips 
firmly together. “ I’ll tell John to keep away 
from him, too.” John was standing a little dis¬ 
tance away talking to three or four boys. Jimmy 
decided to tell John on the way home. “ What’s 
his name? ” he asked Charlie. 

“ Howard Myers. Just ask any of the kids 
how they like Howard Myers and listen to what 
they say,” laughed Charlie. 

“Come on, fellows!” called Nelson White. 
“ It’s almost four. We’ll have time for just one 
more short game of catch before we’re chased off 
the school lot.” He grinned as he said this. 
“ Let Hopkins pitch. He’s a daisy pitcher.” 

Jimmy felt quite grown-up and elated to he 
called “ Hopkins,” and to have his pitching so 
highly praised. 

The hall players were almost the last to leave 
the party. They played catch until one minute 


A DISAGREEABLE BOY 


99 


after four. Jimmy and John left Dick at the 
school gates. They were in high spirits all the 
way home. They had so many pleasant things to 
talk about that Jimmy forgot to mention How¬ 
ard Myers to John. When they reached the 
front gate they darted through it and raced each 
other to the house, laughing and shouting as they 
ran. 

While they had been enjoying themselves at 
the school party and getting acquainted with their 
future schoolmates, Junior had not been idle. 
He had turned gardener on his own account and 
had brought about some amazing results. 


CHAPTER XI 


WHAT JUNIE DID 

Junior had awakened from his nap that after¬ 
noon with the fragrant, cheering odor of freshly- 
baked cookies in his small nose. It had taken 
him not more than two minutes to reach the 
kitchen where Netta was just putting the last of 
a batch of raisin cookies into the oven. On one 
end of the pastry table was a large colander 
heaped high with crisp raisin-filled cookies. 

Junior had demanded four, got them, was told 
by his mother not to come back for any more. 
He had sauntered out of the kitchen, a cookie in 
each hand and two tucked into his blouse pocket. 
He had gone straight to the chicken park to treat 
Doodle, who was already beginning to under¬ 
stand that Junior never came to see him empty- 
handed. 

When the last cooky crumb had vanished 
Junior had tried to coax Doodle to him as a mat¬ 
ter of friendship, but the rooster merely strutted 
100 


101 


WHAT JUNIE DID 

back and forth at a safe distance from him. The 
little boy patiently tried to win Doodle over every 
time after he had fed his pet. 

“ You're a naughty old Doodle,” he had finally 
said disgustedly and went off on a hunt for some¬ 
thing else to do. 

Junior had not been at all interested in the 
making of the gardens until he had watched John 
and Jimmy put their cabbage and tomato plants 
in the ground. The sturdy little plants had 
braced up wonderfully and were beginning to 
hold their green heads very straight. Junior had 
walked down the path the boys had marked out 
more than once to look at them. There was not a 
single green leaf in his garden. His father had 
told him to watch closely every day and he would 
soon see the little plants push up out of the earth. 

He had wandered rather lonesomely from the 
chicken-yard to his garden plot. He missed 
John and Jimmy. This was the first afternoon 
they had been away since they had come to live 
in their new home. He had gone down on his 
hands and knees in the dirt, his eyes close to the 
ground, to see if he could find even the tip of a 
green plant. While he had been sitting in the 
dirt, staring down as hard as he could, he had 


102 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

happened to think of something which pleased 
him. All of a sudden he had sprung up, clapped 
his hands gleefully and set off for the garage as 
fast as he could go. 

The door of the garage was usually open by 
day so Junior had had no trouble in getting in. 
Standing in a corner of it were rakes, hoes, spades 
and other garden tools. Junior had unhesitat¬ 
ingly grabbed a hoe and started gardenward, 
dragging it over the lawn after him. 

At the upper end of Jimmy’s garden several 
ragweeds were already tall and flourishing. 
Junior looked them over and decided they would 
be pretty in his garden. He attacked one of 
them with a hoe but could not chop the roots out 
of the ground. Then he remembered seeing 
Jimmy pull one of these weeds up and he laid 
hold on the one he had been chopping. He pulled 
until his face grew scarlet. Suddenly the weed 
came up and he rolled backward in the dirt. He 
only chuckled at this mishap. Taking the rag¬ 
weed and the hoe he went over to his own garden. 
He soon had the ragweed transplanted to the 
middle of his plot of ground. At last he had 
something growing in it. 

He managed to haul up another good-sized 


WHAT JUNIE DID 


103 


ragweed, but failed to budge a clump of pig¬ 
weed he fancied. So he turned his attention to 
something easier to handle in the way of plants. 
He was just finishing a hard hour’s work when 
he heard John and Jimmy come shouting up the 
walk and rushed to meet them. 

“ Look at Junie! ” Jimmy pointed a playful 
finger at his little brother. “ You’ve been rolling 
in the dirt. It’s even in your hair.” 

“ I are fixing my garden, Jimmy.” Junior 
said “ are ” instead of “ is ” most of the time. 

“Well, I are going to change my suit,” 
mimicked Jimmy, “ and come out and water 
mine.” 

“ I don’t know what there is to fix in your 
garden, Junie,” John said. “ You’d better not 
walk on it or go to digging in it or your seeds 
won’t come up at all.” 

“ I have lots of plants now,” Junior declared 
with great satisfaction. “ I have some like yours, 
Johnny. Come and see.” 

“You have!” exclaimed John, opening sur¬ 
prised eyes. “ Who gave ’em to you? ” 

“ I did,” Junior replied indefinitely. “ Come 
and see.” He started toward his garden, beckon¬ 
ing his brothers on. 


104 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

They went with him out of curiosity to see 
what he meant. 

“ Did Daddy give you any plants like mine 
this afternoon? ” John asked. “ Did he help you 
plant any? ” 

“ I don’t see Daddy for a long time. I found 
nice plants up there.” Junior pointed toward 
the side of the square belonging to Jimmy and 
John. 

“ What!!! ” John’s voice rose to a yell of con¬ 
sternation. He darted forward, reached the gar¬ 
den path and ran along it to his plot. There he 
stopped and threw up his arms with another dis¬ 
mayed shout. Jimmy ran close behind him, anx¬ 
ious to see what had happened. 

“Look!” screamed John. “Just see what 
that little monkey has gone and done.” He 
pointed to where one of the two long rows of 
his cabbage plants had lately flourished. There 
was nothing left but a series of gaping holes. 
“ That’s where he got his plants like mine. 
H-m-m! I guess they were like mine.” 

John dashed over to Junior’s garden, Jimmy 
at his heels. Junior had put John’s cabbage 
plants in a kind of straggling circle around the 
ragweed centerpiece. They lopped disconso- 


WHAT JUNIE DID 


105 


lately on the ground as though used up by such 
rough handling. At sight of them John’s temper 
rose. 

“ You bad little rascal ! 99 he cried and turned 
fiercely on Junior. “ I’m going to make Father 
give you a good spanking for what you’ve 
done.” 

Jimmy stood looking at Junior’s garden. He 
began to laugh and could not stop. He thought 
the ragweed in the middle was so funny. John 
saw that he was laughing and his rage gathered 
force. 

“ Yes, and you stand there and laugh,” he 
sputtered wrathfully. 

“I’m not laughing at you, 33 Jimmy said hast¬ 
ily, trying to straighten his face. “ I’m laughing 
because- Oh, ha, ha, ha! That old rag¬ 
weed is-” 

“ Oh, ha, ha, ha ! 99 jeered John, angrier than 
ever. “ I’ll give you something to laugh at.” He 
swooped down upon Jimmy’s tomato plants. He 
made a series of quick jerks along one row. 
“ Now, how do you like it, Mr. Funnyface? ” he 
flung at Jimmy. 

Jimmy stopped laughing and stood very still. 
He did not care half so much about John’s hav- 


106 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


ing pulled up his plants. It was the spitefulness 
of the act that aroused his anger. 

“ I s’pose you think you’ve done something.” 
He took a quick step toward John, eyes flashing, 
hands clenched. John squared off ready for bat¬ 
tle. 

Junior, the cause of the trouble, had set up a 
dismal “ boo-hoo.” He had begun to cry when 
John turned on him. When he saw his brothers 
getting ready to fight he wailed louder than 
ever. 

“ You’d better cry after all the mischief you’ve 
done,” John told Junior angrily. 

“Humph! I wouldn’t fight with a baby,” 
Jimmy said with cold disdain. “Junie didn’t 
mean any harm. He thought he was doing some¬ 
thing great. Look at the way he came and told 
us. But you knew better than to do what you 
did. I’m never going to speak to you again if I 
can help it.” Jimmy walked away. Junior fol¬ 
lowed him. Jimmy was more pleasant company. 
He had had enough of John. 

Jimmy went into the house and straight to his 
room. He smelled the spicy odor of the raisin 
cookies but did not want any. He was anxious 
to hurry into his gray knickers and a blouse and 


WHAT JUNIE DID 


107 


put his abused tomato plants back where they be¬ 
longed. John came sulkily in before he had 
finished changing his clothes. Jimmy paid no 
attention whatever to his brother. The instant 
he was redressed he left the room. Very soberly 
he went to the garage for the necessary garden 
tools. He was careful to leave those John used 
for him. He did not wish John to come near him 
or ask him for anything. 

Suddenly Jimmy remembered something. His 
heart sank. He and John had done precisely 
what they were sure of not doing. They had 
quarreled; a “ real bad mad,” according to 
Jimmy’s way of thinking. Now they could 
not name the house on the next Monday. 
They could not have a party. Dick would have 
to be told not to come for dinner. There would 
be no peach ice-cream and black chocolate cake. 
They could never name the house “ Happy 
House,” for Jimmy was sure that he would never 
speak to John again. Worst of all their father 
and mother would have to be told. Jimmy won¬ 
dered as he picked up his cherished tomato plants 
and tucked them back, one by one, where they 
belonged, who would do the telling. If his 
mother had heard Junior crying, she might ask 


108 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


what the matter was. If not, then either he or 
John would have to speak up. 

John was also doing some thinking as he went 
over to Junior’s domain and looked at his abused 
plants. When he saw how stringy and battered 
they were he grew angry again. There was no 
use in trying to take them back again. He would 
ask his father to get him some more and he would 
tell him what Junior had done. He hoped Junior 
would get a spanking. As for Jimmy! John 
swallowed a sudden lump in his throat. In his 
heart John adored Jimmy for his strength and 
manly ways. 

In the garage Jimmy found Junior playing 
with Taffy. He had tied a little stick to a long 
string and was dragging it over the floor. He 
had hustled there out of John’s angry way when 
Jimmy had gone to change his clothes. 

“ Are Fawer goin’ to spank me? ” he asked 
mournfully of Jimmy. “ I don’t do nothing, 
Jimmy.” 

“ Yes, you did ” Jimmy replied with stress. 
“ You pulled up John’s plants and spoiled them. 
You let John’s and my garden alone after this, 
Junie. You didn’t mean to be mean, but you got 
into mischief—see? I guess Father won’t spank 


WHAT JUNIE DID 109 

you, this time, but he might if you did it 
again.” 

“No more, never,” promised Junior solemnly. 
“ It’s time to go to the chickens, Jimmy.” 

“ Yes, I know it is. Come along; we’ll go and 
get their feed.” 

John had made no move toward feeding the 
chickens so Jimmy and Junior fed them. While 
they were in the chicken park Mr. Hopkins came 
home in the car. Generally John and Jimmy 
were on hand to greet him when he drove up and 
take the car into the garage. This time neither 
appeared. 

“ Where are the boys? ” he inquired of Mrs. 
Hopkins as he came out on the veranda after 
having put the car away. “ Not home from the 
school party yet? ” 

“ Oh, yes. They came from the school at a 
little after four. They are out in the chicken- 
yard now.” Mrs. Hopkins had not heard Junior 
cry and knew nothing of the trouble in the gar¬ 
den. 

Presently John appeared around a corner of 
the house looking grave as a deacon. He sat 
down on the steps without saying a word. His 
father was reading aloud from the newspaper in 


110 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

his hand to his mother. John began to plan what 
he should say to his father about Junior. While 
he was thinking hard. Junior and Jimmy came 
through the house and out onto the veranda. 
Jimmy climbed into the porch swing. Junior 
sidled up to his mother and leaned against her. 

“ Well, boys, did you have a good time at the 
school?” Mr. Hopkins finally laid down his 
paper and glanced from John to Jimmy. 

“ I had a fine time,” Jimmy made quick reply. 
“ I'm glad I went.” 

“ I had a good time,” John said rather stiffly. 

“ It was very thoughtful in your friend Dick 
to invite you. I suppose you invited him to the 
naming party. I’m sure you wouldn’t forget. I 
told him you had something to tell him,” Mrs. 
Hopkins said. 

There was a long moment of silence then 
John slowly dragged out the words: “ There— 
isn’t—going—to—be—any—party.” He glanced 
sulkily at Junior as he said it. 

“ What makes you say that, John? ” Mrs. 
Hopkins studied John’s flushed sulky face for an 
instant. Next she looked toward Jimmy whose 
features were stolidly set. She saw at once that 
the two boys were on the outs. 


WHAT JUNIE DID 111 

“ Oh, Jimmy and I have had a fuss, and it was 
all Junie’s fault,” John burst forth. 

“O-h-h!” Junior gave a funny little gasp 
and hid his face against his mother’s shoulder. 

“ I don’t blame Junie for it,” Jimmy cut in in 
a scornful voice. “ I blame John. I’m never 
going to speak to him again.” 

“Hoity-toity!” Mr. Hopkins threw up his 
hands in pretended surprise. “ Never is a long 
time, Jimmy. Now what’s all this trouble 
about? John seems to be right about there 
not going to be any party. We certainly 
aren’t ready to take the name ‘ Happy House ’ 
yet.” 

“ I don’t care, Father, Junie is to blame.” 
John proceeded to tell what Junior had done. 
He stopped when he came to the place where he 
had threatened Junior with a spanking. 

“ So far Junior seems to be to blame,” Mr. 
Hopkins declared. “ Now what’s the rest of this 
tale of woe? ” He eyed John shrewdly. “ You 
haven’t said a word yet about Jimmy. Where 
does he come into it? ” 

“ Well—well—I—was going to. Maybe 
Jimmy’d rather tell you. He doesn’t like me 
and thinks I’m to blame—and—all that.” 


112 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


“ I don’t want to say anything about it,” 
Jimmy said shortly. 

“ I’m not afraid to say what I did.” John 
tossed his head. He finished the tale of the gar¬ 
den squabble in a defiant voice. “ It was all 
Junie’s fault,” he repeated. 

“ No, it was not Junior’s fault that you pulled 
up Jimmy’s plants in a fit of temper,” his father 
said decisively. “ That was your own lack of 
ruling your spirit. I should say this was a three- 
part story of trouble. Junior is to blame for the 
first part, you for the second, and Jimmy for the 
third.” 

“ What’s the third part? You mean because I 
laughed? ” Jimmy looked faintly perplexed. 
“ I only laughed at the way Junie had stuck 
weeds in the middle of his garden. I was sorry 
for John, but he-” 

“ The third part is your saying you are never 
going to speak to John again. You think you 
mean that, but you don’t.” 

“ Yes, I do,” Jimmy insisted. “ I don’t want 
to speak to him at all.” 

“ Very well. I’m going to forbid you to speak 
to John or John to speak to you for one week. 
We’ll see how you feel at the end of that time. 



WHAT JUNIE DID 


113 


I shan’t punish you, John, for pulling up 
Jimmy’s plants except to say that I could never 
trust a spiteful boy. You are not to threaten 
Junior with a spanking at any time. Leave dis¬ 
cipline to your mother and me.” 

“ Well, Junie had no business to spoil my cab¬ 
bage plants,” John cried out resentfully. “ He 
ought to be spanked for doing such a trick.” 

“ He didn’t do it for spite as you did when 
you pulled up Jimmy’s plants,” interposed Mrs. 
Hopkins. “ Junie has a good many things to 
learn yet that you and Jimmy know.” 

“ You may have other plants to replace those 
Junie spoiled,” promised his father. “ One thing 
Junie must learn at once is to keep out of the 
other fellow’s garden. Come here, Junior.” He 
beckoned to the little boy who was screening him¬ 
self behind his mother. 

Junior obeyed with slow steps. His father 
reached forward and placed a firm hand on each 
small shoulder. He looked squarely into Junior’s 
rosy face and began to lay down the law to him in 
short, effective sentences. At the end of the em¬ 
phatic lecture Junior was promised the dreaded 
spanking if he again meddled with anyone’s gar¬ 
den but his own. 


114 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


“When can we name the house?” Jimmy 
questioned gloomily as his father folded his paper 
and rose to go into the house. 

“ I don’t know.” Mr. Hopkins purposely 
shrugged his shoulders to emphasize his indiffer¬ 
ence. 

“We were good almost two weeks.” 

“ Almost, but not quite. Suppose I were to 
give you another two weeks’ trial, beginning 
Monday when your first two weeks were up, 
what good would it do when you and John aren’t 
on speaking terms? You can’t have a happy 
house when two members of the household won’t 
speak to each other. It looks to me as though 
it might be quite a while before we can name our 
home 4 Happy House.’ ” 


CHAPTER XII 


ANOTHER KIND OF BOY 

The next day was Saturday. John’s and 
Jimmy’s first thoughts that morning were of Dick 
and how they were going to tell him of the dismal 
change in their plans. Certainly they could not 
go together to the hardware store to tell him, 
and how could the one know whether the other 
intended to go? 

“ Mother,” John caught at his mother’s sleeve 
as she passed him in the living-room, “ will you 
please say something to Jimmy that I can’t say? ” 

‘‘No, sir,” was the prompt refusal. “ You and 
Jimmy raised the wall between you. You’ll have 
to leave it up now for at least a week.” 

“ But, Mother, I don’t know whether Jimmy’s 
going to tell Dick. One of us has to. If we 
don’t he’ll come to see us Monday, and we don’t 
speak to each other, and it will be awful 

“ I think you had best go and see Dick and 
tell him,” his mother said in a grave tone. John 
116 


116 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

knew it meant that she considered him the most 
to blame. 

“ All right, I will. May I go this morning? ” 
John asked meek permission. 

“ Yes. Go now, if you like.” 

John’s clouded face lightened a little as he took 
his cap from the hall rack and hurried out of the 
house. It was not long afterward until Jimmy 
came to her with the same problem. 

“John has gone to Dick’s, Jimmy.” Mrs. 
Hopkins was secretly much amused. 

“ Well,” Jimmy sighed, “ I’m glad Dick’s go¬ 
ing to know, anyhow.” 

John had not gone far along the street into 
which he turned from their own street when he 
heard a hail of, “ Hello, Hopkins.” He stopped 
short in surprise. A gray roadster had just 
passed. Now it was slowing down to a stop. A 
stout, red-faced boy in a gray suit was leaning 
out of the driver’s seat. 

“ Hello,” John returned. He had seen the 
boy in gray on the school lawn at the party. He 
thought him the same boy who lived in the white 
house on the next street to their own. 

“ You don’t know me, but I know you. I see 
you every day from our lot,” the fat boy said 


ANOTHER KIND OF BOY 117 

affably. “ I see you and your brother playing 
with the little kid. I was going to talk to you 
over at school yesterday but I don’t like that 
bunch of fellows you were playing ball with. 
They don’t know how to play ball. Your brother 
is some pitcher, though.” 

John brightened at this praise of Jimmy. 
Now that he and Jimmy were on the outs he had 
begun to value his brother. “ My brother Jimmy 
was the best pitcher in our school,” he said with 
pride. 

“ Is that so? Come on and take a ride with 
me. I’m not going far. Can you run a car? ” 
Howard Myers motioned John toward th6 auto¬ 
mobile. 

“ A little bit. Father won’t let us drive ’with¬ 
out him.” John skipped into the car. He 
thought it would be fun to take just a little ride 
with this new boy before going to see Dick. 

“ My father’s going to give me this car,” de¬ 
clared Howard grandly. “ I’ve been teasing him 
for it, but he says I’m too young to own one yet. 
I’ll make him come across with it, soon. Want 
to see me speed her up a little? ” 

Without waiting for a reply Howard increased 
the speed of the machine until they were going 


118 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


altogether too fast for the street they were in. 
Before John knew it they had turned into Lake^ 
view Pike. Suddenly, and much nearer than the 
day on which he had first seen it, they came upon 
Rainbow Lake. John gasped as Howard shot 
the car down a short side branching of the pike 
that brought them within a few yards of the rip¬ 
pling blue water. The short side branch ended 
at a little yellow shack where gasoline and auto¬ 
mobile accessories were sold. In front of the 
shack stood a large black car. Howard parked 
the roadster directly behind it. 

“ Come along.” He nodded toward the lake. 
“ Let’s go down and throw stones into the water. 
I’ll bet I can skip a stone more times than you 
can.” 

“ I—I can’t.” John drew back. “ I—you 
see, I promised my father I wouldn’t come down 
here. I didn’t know you were going to drive to 
the lake.” 

“ Oh, shucks. Don’t be a baby. I hope you’re 
not a silly little mamma’s boy. It won’t kill you 
just to walk along the lake shore. You’re down 
here now. You don’t have to tell him about it, 
do you? ” 

“ Yes, I do,” John said firmly. “ If I don’t 


ANOTHER KIND OF BOY 119 

get out of the car he won’t care because I didn’t 
know I was coming here. If I do, that’s dif¬ 
ferent.” 

“ Oh, all right. You stay there if you want 
to. Now watch me swing a few rocks over the 
pond.” Howard lumbered ungracefully down to 
the lake’s edge and began to pick up stones. He 
collected a little pile, took off his coat, rolled up 
his sleeves, swung his body half-way around 
and zipped a large flat stone into the water. 
“ That’s the way I do it! ” he called boastfully 
to John. 

While he was whizzing stones into the lake and 
shouting back to John, three barefooted boys 
suddenly appeared from behind Howard’s road¬ 
ster. They had heard Howard’s loud tones and 
come from the pike to see what was going on. 
They paused beside the gray roadster and began 
to look it over. They were bright-faced, clean¬ 
looking boys and they gazed rather shyly at John. 
One of them said, “ Hello,” and another reached 
out and rubbed his hand curiously along one of 
the back tires of the car. 

He had hardly touched it when Howard called 
at top voice: “ Hey, there, you fresh kids, get 
out! Keep away from that machine.” 


120 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


“Aw, who you calling fresh kids?” the boy 
who had touched the car yelled back at Howard. 
“ We can stay here if we want to.” 

“ Oh, you can? Well, I guess you can’t. Beat 
it before I chase you away.” Howard moved 
threateningly forward. 

“ Who’s afraid? Not us.” The three stood 
their ground. “ We’ll go when we get good and 
ready.” 

“ You’ll go before that,” Howard bullied. 
Without waiting to say more he picked up a me¬ 
dium-sized stone and threw it at the boys. He 
had not stopped to consider John in the car. 
Thus challenged the three hoys picked up stones 
in a flash and returned the fire. The stones they 
hastily gathered up were mere pebbles beside the 
ones Howard was throwing. 

“ Come on, kids. He’s throwin’ rocks. I don’t 
want to get hit by one. Who wants to look at 
his old machine anyway? ” One of the trio 
headed for the pike. The others followed him. 
Howard exerted all his strength to send a good- 
sized stone after them. He aimed wildly. There 

was a crash, a sound of splintering glass- 

The stone had gone straight through the wind¬ 
shield of the black car. 



ANOTHER KIND OF BOY 121 


“ Good-night! We’ve got to get out of here.” 
Howard rushed to the car and clambered into the 
driver’s seat. He was just backing the car for a 
turn when two men came hurrying out of the 
yellow shack. 

One of them was small and dark: the owner of 
the shop. The other was tall and stout: the 
owner of the car. They both shouted after How¬ 
ard but he kept on going. 

“ That’s Mr. Burton’s car,” he said, half laugh¬ 
ing. “ I hope he doesn’t know this car when he 
sees it. He’s an awful old crank.” 

“ But—but—you smashed his windshield.” 
John looked scared. “ You’ll have to tell him 
and pay for it.” 

“ Ho, ho, ho! ” Howard threw back his head 
and laughed. “ Think I want to go broke the 
rest of the summer? It would take a lot of my 
pocket money to buy a new windshield. Let him 
buy it. He’s rich. Besides my father’d know it 
then, and there would be a fuss. Don’t you dare 
tell anybody I broke it.” He gave John an un¬ 
pleasant look. “ If you ever say a word, I’ll 
fight you.” 

John was silent. He wished he had not taken 
a ride with Howard. “ I guess you’d better let 


122 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


me out in front of the hardware store,” he said. 
“ I have to go there.” Howard already had the 
car well into Lakeview. 

“ See here, that don’t go. You’ve got to prom¬ 
ise you won’t tell anybody what I did. If you 
do, I’ll say it was you and not me that broke it.” 

“ Why, I didn’t even have a stone in my 
hand!” John exclaimed indignantly. “You 
nearly hit me with the stones you threw. I won’t 
promise anything. If I was asked who did it I 
wouldn’t say your name. If I was asked if you 
did it I’d try not to answer. I’m not a telltale.” 

“ You’d better not tell tales about me.” How¬ 
ard was now as hateful as he had been pleasant. 
“ If you do-” 

“ Here, you young rascal, what do you mean 
by driving off in my roadster? ” A very tall man 
with iron-gray side whiskers and a roaring voice 
was hurrying angrily along the walk toward the 
car. “ How many times have you been told not 
to dare touch my roadster? You thought I would 
be away all day and you’d enjoy yourself. You 
won’t feel so happy after I am through with you, 
young man.” 

“ Oh, see here, Pa, you know 
began in a whining tone. 


Howard 




ANOTHER KIND OF BOY 123 


John waited to hear no more. He slipped past 
Howard and out of the roadster without a word. 
Howard was too busy trying to stave off his fa¬ 
ther’s anger to notice John. 

“ Ah-h-h-h! ” John drew a long breath, then 
darted toward the high steps of the hardware 
store. He looked back once and saw the roadster 
still standing there. Several people stood listen¬ 
ing and laughing as the scolding Mr. Myers was 
still roaring at Howard. The fat boy had climbed 
into the back seat and his father was preparing to 
take the wheel. 

He went into the store and found Dick busily 
straightening the piles of agate, tin and granite- 
ware on the floor. 

“ Why, hello! ” Dick’s face instantly lighted 
up. “ I didn’t think I’d see you to-day. This is 
an awful job I have to do, but my father said I 
couldn’t go to the movies to-night unless I 
straightened up this stuff.” 

John sat down on an overturned galvanized 
wash-tub and began to tell Dick about why there 
was to be no party. Dick left off piling up stew 
pans and seated himself cross-legged on the floor, 
his freckled face alive with sympathy. 

“ That’s too bad,” he said several times while 


124 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

John was telling his story. “ Isn’t Jimmy ever 
going to speak to you again? ” 

“ Don’t know,” John answered gloomily. 
“ I’m not the least teeny bit mad at him. He’s 
mad at me. Maybe he won’t speak to me after 
the week’s up. You can come to see us any day, 
you know, but you’ll have to play with me a 
while and then with Jimmy. We can’t have much 
fun that way. I’m sorry about the party.” 

“ You might have one some other time,” Dick 
comforted. 

“ I don’t know when,” John spoke doubtfully. 
“ Father said it might be a long while before 
we could name the house. What time is it, 
Dick? ” 

Dick glanced importantly at a silver wrist- 
watch he wore on a brown leather strap and said: 
“ Ten minutes to twelve.” 

“ Gracious! ” John hastily rose from the tub. 
“ I’ll have to go. I thought it was about eleven 
o’clock. We have our lunch at half-past twelve.” 
He wanted very much to tell Dick about his ride 
with Howard Myers, but he had said to Howard 
that he was not a telltale. Now he must live up 
to his own words. He couldn’t resist asking a 
question, however. “ Do you know a boy named 


ANOTHER KIND OF BOY 125 


Howard Myers? ” he said, as Dick walked beside 
him to the door. 

“ Uh-h-h-h! ” Dick pretended to collapse. 
“ Do I? I wish I didn’t. Why, you saw him the 
other day at the school party! That old fatty in 
the gray suit. The fellows were talking about 
him to you.” 

“ Not to me.” John shook his head. “ I—I 
didn’t know anything about who he was until this 
morning.” 

“ I guess it was Jimmy the boys told about 
Howard, then. Was he over to your house? He 
lives near you, you know. He might try to be 
chummy with you and Jimmy because you’re new 
here and don’t know what a meany he is. None 
of us fellows have any use for him.” 

“ I—he was driving his father’s car this morn¬ 
ing and he met his father walking along past the 
post-office. His father was mad because he had 
the car. He scolded him right in the street be¬ 
fore everybody.” John felt free to say this much. 

Dick giggled enjoyment of Howard’s down¬ 
fall. “ Serves him right. His mother can’t 
make him mind. Takes his father to get after 
him.” 

John said good-bye to Dick and started for 


126 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

home feeling more down-hearted than ever. If 
he had not lost his temper and jerked up Jimmy’s 
tomato plants he would not have had to go to 
see Dick about the party. Then he would not 
have met Howard Myers. If he had not quar¬ 
reled with Jimmy he would have been told by 
Jimmy what the boys had said of Howard. 
Worst of all, he had disobeyed his father with¬ 
out meaning to do so. He had been down to the 
lake. 


CHAPTER XIII 


LOST—ONE GOOD OPINION 

J ohn thought he would tell his father the first 
thing about having gone riding with Howard and 
the smashing of the windshield. His courage 
failed him, however, and he said nothing about it 
until the following afternoon. His father was 
out in front of the garage putting a new tire on 
the automobile. John hung about and watched 
him for a little without saying a word. His fa¬ 
ther noticed the silence, for John usually had more 
to say than Jimmy. He thought John was lost 
without Jimmy and was tempted to take away 
the penalty he had placed upon them. He did 
not yield to his own kindly impulse, for both boys 
needed the lesson. John too frequently lost his 
temper and Jimmy was inclined to turn very 
hard-hearted when aroused to anger. 

“ I have to tell you something,” J ohn began 
suddenly. “ You’ll think maybe I meant to do 
it, but I didn’t. It’s about a boy named Howard 
Myers and—and—me. He lives in that white 
127 


128 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


house.” John pointed toward the Myers’ resi¬ 
dence. He continued jerkily with the story of 
his unlucky morning ride with Howard. 

Mr. Hopkins said not a word until John had 
finished. “ Well, John,” he stood up from his 
work and looked down at his crestfallen son, 
“ who is going to pay for that broken wind¬ 
shield? ” 

“ The man—that Mr. Burton, I s’pose, who 
owns the car. He’ll have to, for he doesn’t know 
Howard smashed it. I feel as if I ought to help 
pay for it. I was with Howard. I’ve some 
money in my bank; pretty near fifteen dollars.” 
John had been saving this money to buy a large 
toy aeroplane that could sail quite high and 
would cost fifty dollars. 

“ Go and get it,” his father briskly ordered. 

John turned and went sadly to the house for 
his toy bank. He soon returned with it and held 
it out to his father. 

“ Count the money,” his father said briefly. 

“ Fourteen dollars and eighty-five cents,” 
John presently announced. 

“ All right. Put it baok in your bank and get 
into the car. The tire is on, and you and I arc* 
going to take a ride to see Mr. Burton.” 


LOST—ONE GOOD OPINION 129 

“ Do you know where he lives? ” John asked 
curiously. 

“ No, but I can soon find out. We’ll take the 
bank with us. I wish Mr. Burton to understand 
that you are doing right at a sacrifice. I needn’t 
warn you not to play with this Myers boy. You 
shouldn’t have set foot in his car. A boy of his 
age isn’t a fit driver for a high-powered car. 
When you saw you were at the lake you should 
have got out of the car at once and gone on about 
your business. You didn’t, and so you met trou¬ 
ble. There’s no use in my punishing you for 
having acted foolishly. It will come hard on you 
to have to pay up. But it’s the manly way, 
Johnny—the only way.” 

“ I know it.” John was very near to crying. 
His lip quivered a tiny bit as he got into the car. 
“ Father, I don’t want to tell Mr. Burton How¬ 
ard Myers’ name. Do I have to? ” 

“Leave that to me. It was your business to tell 
me his name and you did. That lets you out, 
Son.” 

John said hardly a word during the drive. He 
wondered what Jimmy would say if he knew 
where they were going. His father stopped at 
the drug-store and inquired where Mr. Burton 


130 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

lived. He lived on Sycamore Avenue in a very 
large showy white stone house with pale yellow 
trimmings. 

They parked the car before the iron-fenced 
lawn and went up a white stone walk to the 
many-columned veranda. John squared his 
shoulders as he marched bravely along beside his 
father, his cherished bank under his left arm. 
He was going to act like a man, he told himself. 
His father rang the bell and a maid answered the 
door and ushered them into a high-ceilinged re¬ 
ception-hall set with expensive furniture. After 
a few minutes Mr. Burton entered the hall from 
a side room. 

“ Good-afternoon,” he greeted in a booming 
voice. “ What can I do for you? ” 

John thought he had never before seen such a 
large man outside of a circus. He was not only 
stout, but very tall. 

It did not take Mr. Hopkins long to explain 
the nature of his call. 

“ So this is the young rascal who was with 
Myers, is it? ” He gave Mr. Hopkins a mean¬ 
ing glance over John’s head. He drew his 
heavy brows together and glared severely at 

John. 


LOST—ONE GOOD OPINION 131 

John didn’t mind the glaring. He supposed 
he deserved it. He nearly jumped with surprise 
when he heard Mr. Burton mention Howard’s 
name. 

“ Yes, sir. I was with him, but I didn’t know 
who he was.” John went on to explain as best 
he could. His father sat silent and let him do 
the talking. When he offered Mr. Burton the 
money from his bank the big man waved him 
aside. 

“ Keep it; keep it. It’s young Myers who 
ought to be made to pay up. I shall tell his fa¬ 
ther, though I won’t accept any money for the 
windshield from him, either. I want to see the 
Myers boy get a good whaling. That’s what all 
these boys need.” He frowned at John again. 
“He’ll try to squirm out of it, I expect, but Jenks, 
who owns the shop down at the lake, saw him fire 
the stone. I’ve got him good and tight. Well, 
boys of to-day aren’t much good. I don’t take 
much stock in them.” 

Mr. Hopkins and John made their call short. 
Mr. Burton was not particularly cordial. It was 
plain to see that he did not believe John Had 
spoken the truth. He suspected John had been 
throwing stones, too. 


132 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

“ Why, he didn’t believe me! ” John cried when 
they were in the car again. “ He thinks I’m just 
the same as Howard Myers! ” 

“ I’m afraid he does,” Mr. Hopkins agreed 
soberly. 

“ What shall I do with my bank money now; 
give it to you? ” 

“ No; you may keep the money. You’ve lost 
something more valuable. You’ve lost someone’s 
good opinion.” 

John twisted uneasily in the seat. “ I know 
it,” he admitted. He peered anxiously out of the 
car as it rolled up the drive. He was looking for 
Jimmy. He wondered if Jimmy would wonder 
where he and his father had been. 

Jimmy was at that moment at the very back 
of the Hopkins’ lot trying to coax Sunshine off 
the Myers’ property. The Myers’ chicken-yard 
was located on the land which adjoined that of Mr. 
Hopkins. Jimmy had been taking a lonely walk 
along the back of the lot, when, glancing into the 
chicken-yard, he had caught a glimpse of some¬ 
thing bright orange. A second look and he had 
recognized Sunshine. The big yellow puss was 
sitting very still at one side of the wired-in park 
intently watching something. He was paying no 


LOST—ONE GOOD OPINION 133 

attention to the chickens. They, in turn, were 
neither interested nor afraid of him. 

How Sunshine had managed to get into the 
Myers’ chicken park was a mystery to Jimmy. 
The wire inclosing it was at least ten feet high 
and securely fastened at the bottom. 

“ He’s watching for a rat, maybe,” Jimmy 
said aloud. “ He oughtn’t to be there, though. 
If someone came out to the park and saw him 
it would look as if he was after the chickens. 
Sunny, you come right straight home. Do you 
hear me? ” Jimmy tried to make his voice very 
stern. Sunshine appeared to have become deaf. 
Jimmy raised his voice and called again. 

This time someone besides Sunshine heard him. 
Howard Myers was walking about the back yard 
in solitary grandeur. He was finding life hard. 
He had not only received the thrashing prom¬ 
ised by his father; he had also been forbidden to 
go off the Myers’ premises for three days. He 
had just come out of the house with almost a 
quarter of a chocolate layer cake in one hand, 
to which he had helped himself from the pantry. 
He was hungrily gobbling it when he heard 
Jimmy’s voice. Peering in the direction of the 
sound he made out a boyish figure skirting the 


134 JIMMY , JOHN AND JUNIOR 

back stretch of chicken wire. Howard hustled 
toward the chicken park to see what was going 
on. 

The instant he saw Sunshine he dashed through 
the wire gate and into the park after him, waving 
his arms and shouting, “ Scat, you cat, you! Get 
out! ” He picked up a stone and threw it at the 
startled Angora. Sunshine made a frightened 
leap and dodged it. Like a flash he darted to 
one of the stout stakes which supported the wire 
fence and climbed it. He ran like a hunted rab¬ 
bit across the Hopkins’ lot and was soon lost to 
sight among the berry bushes. 

“ Hey, there, you Hopkins kid,” Howard 
yelled insolently at Jimmy who was just turning 
away from the wire. “ If you don’t keep your 
old yellow cat at home our hired man’s going 
to shoot it. He kills our chickens. We’ve 
found three dead in the park just lately. That 
goes! ” 

Jimmy had intended to hurry away after Sun¬ 
shine. He had flushed angrily when Howard 
threw the stone but he knew Sunshine had no 
business in the Myers’ chicken-yard. At the 
threat that Sunshine would be shot he changed 
his mind and sent back the defiant return, “ I 


LOST—ONE GOOD OPINION 135 


don’t believe he ever touched one of your chickens. 
He was after a rat in your park. I was watching 
him, and I know. It’s probably rats that are kill¬ 
ing your chickens. If your hired man ever 
touches my cat I’ll—I’ll—he’ll be sorry. That’s 
ah.” 

Jimmy walked away. Howard screamed after 
him, “ Is that so? ” in a mocking tone, and, “ Oh, 
don’t you think you’re smart? ” 

“ He’s a mean boy, sure as can be,” Jimmy 
was thinking as he walked toward the house. “ I 
forgot to tell John about him. I’ll tell him as 
soon as I can.” Jimmy sighed and buried his 
hands deep in his pockets. He wished the hard 
week was over. 

Meanwhile fresh trouble was on its way to 
Howard. Directly after Mr. Hopkins’ and 
John’s call on him Mr. Burton had decided to 
report Howard’s misdeed to his father and have 
it off his mind. He had called Mr. Myers on 
the telephone at the Lakeview Bank. Mr. 
Myers was the president of the bank and one of 
Lakeview’s leading citizens. He was still angry 
with Howard for taking his roadster so he was 
even less pleased to hear of other mischief his 
son had done. 


136 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


When he reached home he hunted at once for 
Howard and gave him a second whipping. In 
vain Howard tried to make him believe that it 
was John who had done the mischief and then 
laid it to him in order to clear himself. 

“ No, young man. You can’t fool me. Bur¬ 
ton said you did it and he knows,” was his father’s 
grim remark. “ I’m going to take away your 
pocket money for a month for this performance.” 

Howard was sure that no one but John had 
known who threw the stone. Of course it was 
John who had gone and told Mr. Burton. He 
made up his mind that he would be even with 
John for “ tattling.” 

At breakfast the next morning John stared in 
blank surprise at an envelope beside his plate 
addressed to “ Tattle-tale John Hopkins.” 

“ Why—why—where did I get this from? ” he 
asked his mother. 

“ Netta found it under the milk bottles outside 
the front door this morning,” was the reply. 
“ Someone doesn’t seem to like you very well, 
John.” 

“ Huh, I guess not.” John already had the 
letter out of the envelope. Jimmy was pretend¬ 
ing to be busy with his breakfast, but he could 


LOST—ONE GOOD OPINION 137 


not help looking from under his eyelashes at 
John and his letter. 

John was reading to himself and frowning as 
he read: 

“ S marty Tattle-tale: 

“ You went and told old grouch Burton 
about the you know what happened at the lake 
yesterday. He had to go and tell my father. I 
have been abused. The next time I see you I 
will give you a good licking. I will lick your 
brother, too, and our hired man will shoot your 
cat that kills our chickens. You’ll be sorry you 
didn’t keep still about the lake. 

“ Yours, very mad at you, 

“ Howard Myers.” 

John was so amazed and upset at this war¬ 
like message he forgot that his mother and 
Jimmy might not understand the letter. He 
read it aloud to his father who only laughed and 
said that it had certainly been written by a cow¬ 
ardly boy. Mr. Hopkins had told Mrs. Hopkins 
about the windshield but it was a complete sur¬ 
prise to Jimmy. 

“ I don’t know what he means about our cat,” 
John said, wrinkling his forehead. “ Taffy and 
Sunny don’t kill chickens.” 


138 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


“ Oh, Sunshine-” Jimmy began excitedly. 

He stopped and looked appealingly at his 
mother. 

She smilingly shook her head. She would not 
let him tell her what he wanted to say for John’s 
benefit. On the other hand Jimmy was wild to 
know where John had met Howard Myers and 
what had happened at the lake. But the wall 
was still up and must stay up until the end of 
that long, long week. 


CHAPTER XIV 

FUN AT THE FIRE HOUSE 

On Friday evening, one week after the quarrel 
in the garden Mr. Hopkins called John and 
Jimmy into the library and there the two re¬ 
lieved little brothers made peace. They shook 
hands half a dozen times and finally grabbed 
each other in a genuine bear hug which they tried 
to pretend was a friendly scuffle. They sat up 
in bed for almost an hour that night talking. 
Before they finally went to sleep John knew all 
about Sunshine’s mishap and Jimmy knew the 
disastrous adventure of the lake. 

“ You’ll have to help me watch Sunny and 
Taffy, too,” Jimmy told John. “ Taffy’s never 
been over in that old chicken park yet, but he 
might go. I wish Sunny wouldn’t. I asked 
Daddy if that hired man would dare shoot Sun¬ 
shine. He said, ‘ Yes,’ he would do it whether 
he had a right to or not. Father said if Sunny 
139 


140 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


got hurt or killed he would make a big fuss about 
it for he knows Sunny never catches chickens. 
But I don’t want him to get hurt,” Jimmy ended 
in a worried tone. 

During the next few days, however, Sunshine 
stayed strictly on the Hopkins’ lot to the satis¬ 
faction of the boys who soon formed the habit 
of hunting for Sunny every two or three hours. 
They would make the round of the garage, 
chicken-yard and beyond the berry bushes call¬ 
ing, “Here, Sunny, Sunny Sunshine!” Some¬ 
times Sunshine would come yawning around a 
comer all of a sudden as though he would say, 
“ Now why did you wake me up when I was 
having such a glorious sleep? ” 

As the first lovely days of summer slipped by 
John and Jimmy wondered if their father were 
ever going to let them name the house. Several 
times they had asked him about it and each time 
he had returned briefly, “Not yet.” 

Dick had gone to the seashore to spend a week 
at his aunt’s cottage. He had promised the two 
Js he would be back before the Fourth of July. 
If only their father would let them name the 
house on the Fourth they could have a splendid 
party with fireworks in the evening. Jimmy had 


FUN AT THE FIRE HOUSE 141 


five dollars he had purposely saved for fireworks 
and John had agreed to spend some of the money 
in his bank to help buy them. They decided to 
say not a word to their father until three days 
before the Fourth then coax him as hard as they 
dared. 

The week before the Fourth of July, however, 
a young man came to the house and invited Mr. 
and Mrs. Hopkins to bring their children and 
come to a Fourth of July picnic at the Lakeview 
Hose House. Each year, the young man said, 
the firemen gave this picnic especially for the 
children of Lakeview so that they might have 
plenty of fireworks without any one of them get¬ 
ting hurt. Each family was asked to give a dol¬ 
lar, or more if they wished, and the money was 
used for fireworks and ice-cream. There were 
to be races, games and contests for the boys and 
girls and dancing for the grown folks. Some of 
the women of Lakeview would serve a dinner on 
the lawn. 

The boys were so delighted with the idea of the 
Fire House picnic they forgot about their own 
party. They planned to spend some of their 
money on the picnic grounds if there should be 
any candy or popcorn stands. Dick came home 


142 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR ~ 

two days before the Fourth. He came to see 
his new chums about half an hour after he got 
home. 

“ We have a great old time at the Fire House 
on the Fourth,” Dick told them. “ ’Bout all the 
people in Lakeview are there. All the men like 
Mr. Burton, and those that have lots of money 
go to the picnic. You see they lived in this town 
when they weren’t any older than we are. Every 
year they went to the Fire House picnic. Mr. 
Burton was an awful poor boy then. He told 
my father that was the only good time he had, 
just once a year.” 

John thought to himself that being so poor 
when he was a boy and never having had any 
good times was probably what had made Mr. 
Burton act so cranky when he and his father went 
to the rich man’s house. He felt quite sorry for 
the big cross man with the angry voice. 

“ Is that Howard Myers going to be there? ” 
Jimmy asked a trifle scornfully. 

“ Oh, sure. His father used to belong to the 
fire company. He gives money to the Fire 
House every year. Howard always thinks he’s 
awful smart at the picnic.” 

“ Do the firemen live in this hose house? ” John 


FUN AT THE FIRE HOUSE 143 

questioned. “ They do in the city and get money 
for it and their uniforms and everything.” 

“ Nope; they don’t do that way here. All the 
firemen live at home and run to the Fire House 
when the fire bell rings. My father belongs, but 
nobody pays him any money for going to the 
fires. He just goes because he says it’s his duty. 
This is only a little fire company, you know. It 
hasn’t any big truck with long ladders. It has 
only an engine with the hose and water buckets 
and little ladders all hung on the sides of the 
engine. Some of the firemen ride on it, too, to 
the fires. They wear green caps with a blue band 
around ’em. On the band it says ‘ Volunteer.’ 
I’ll show you the engine the day of the picnic,” 
Dick eagerly promised. 

Fourth of July morning dawned clear and hot, 
but not too hot. It was a day of solid blue skies 
and a few white clouds with the sun shining just 
warm enough to make it pleasant for everyone. 
The three Js could see the Fire House from 
where they lived. It was a faded brown building 
with a tall bell-cupola. It was decorated with a 
large flag which fluttered lazily in the morning 
breeze. 

The picnic was to begin at one o’clock, but 


144 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


nearly everyone was on the grounds surrounding 
the Fire House before then. This celebration 
was especially for the children so the people of 
Lakeview had tried to give them plenty of fun to 
amuse them. Several persons had loaned gayly- 
painted lawn swings and these had been set at 
different places on the grounds. Some of the 
Lakeview young men had rigged up a Punch and 
Judy show and a shooting gallery. There was a 
peanut man and a popcorn stand and two candy 
booths besides a free lemonade and orangeade 
stand. A balloon man strolled about with pink, 
red, purple and blue sausage balloons. There 
were to be no long speeches or singing. Every¬ 
one was simply to start in and have a merry 
time. 

John saw the balloons and bought Junior a 
green one. He ran to Junie with it and bumped 
smartly into Jimmy who was coming along with 
a pink one in his hand. So Junior had two bal¬ 
loons and marched about with his father and 
mother, a balloon sailing from each hand. 

The races and contests began at two o’clock. 
There were egg and spoon and potato races and 
a hop, skip and a jump race, besides a hundred- 
yard dash for both boys and girls. There were 


FUN AT THE FIRE HOUSE 145 

jumping and throwing and balancing contests, 
too. These were mostly for the older boys and 
men. 

Nelson White, one of the boys John and 
Jimmy had met at school, won the hundred-yard 
dash for boys. Dick’s particular chums were all 
at the picnic and it was not long until the whole 
crowd of youngsters, including John and Jimmy, 
were wandering around the lot together having 
the best kind of time. Howard Myers was pa¬ 
rading the grounds with two boys a little older 
than himself. Dick told Jimmy they were high- 
school freshies and not very well liked. The three 
seemed to be enjoying themselves. They talked 
and laughed very loudly and called out jeering 
remarks at the men who sold popcorn and pea¬ 
nuts. Howard was wearing a white flannel suit 
and appeared fatter than ever. 

Long before the races and contests were over 
the wives and daughters of the firemen and some 
of their friends had begun to set several very long 
tables on the lawn. Little by little the tables 
began to be covered with a great variety of things 
to eat. There were different kinds of sandwiches, 
high plates of brown bread, baked beans, olives, 
pickles and jellies, salads and many kinds of 


146 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

cake. The fragrant scent of coffee filled the air 
and it made one feel hungry just to glance at 
the loaded tables. 

At one side of the Fire House was a high stack 
of folding chairs. The men and boys brought 
them over and set them in rows along the tables. 
By the time the last prize had been awarded in 
the races and contests the feast was ready. The 
ice-cream was to be kept until later and served 
with cake during the evening. 

About six o’clock Mr. Burton came to the Fire 
House in an automobile. With him were three 
men of nearly his own age. The firemen seemed 
glad to see him and his friends. They set a spe¬ 
cial table for them to eat at. Afterward they 
placed a row of chairs from inside the house along 
the back wall of the building where these wel¬ 
come visitors could best see the fireworks. As 
soon as it was dark enough the display would 
begin. 

John felt a little ashamed when he saw Mr. 
Burton. There was the man whose good opinion 
he had lost. Once in running with his crowd of 
boys he passed right by the big man. Mr. Bur¬ 
ton was tilting back in a wide chair with broad 
arms and a low back. 


FUN AT THE FIRE HOUSE 147 


“ Look a little out there, you boys! ” he cried 
severely, as the youngsters swept past him. 
“ Don’t care who you crash into, do you? ” 

John was not the only boy on the lot who was 
thinking of Mr. Burton. Howard Myers was 
trying to think of some way to pay the “ grouch ” 
back for reporting him to his father. He con¬ 
fided to his two companions that he knew a man 
he’d like to play a joke on, but he couldn’t think 
what to do to give him a good scare. 

“ Easiest thing there is,” one of the two told 
him. “ I’ll show you something.” He put his 
hand inside his coat and drew out three cannon 
firecrackers. 

“ Oh, give me ’em! ” Howard snatched at the 
giant crackers. 

“ Go easy. You may have just one. I need 
the others. I’ve friends of my own I want to 
surprise.” 

Howard teased for “ Only one more,” but did 
not get it. At first he thought he would tell his 
pals whom he wanted to scare. He did not. He 
was afraid they might tell tales. He fully in¬ 
tended to throw the big firecracker somewhere 
very close to Mr. Burton so it would go off al¬ 
most in the “ grouch’s ” ears. He planned to get 


148 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

behind the big man and throw the noisy cracker 
just as the fireworks were beginning. It would 
then be too dark to see who had thrown it. He 
hoped Mr. Burton would sit still just where he 
was. It would be fine to land the firecracker di¬ 
rectly under his chair. He would probably tip 
over. Howard giggled as he thought of how 
funny that would be. He was a thoroughly un¬ 
kind boy who had no mercy in his heart for any¬ 
one. 

As it began to grow dark he made an excuse 
to leave his two companions. They had become 
tired of him and were not sorry to lose his com¬ 
pany. Mr. Burton’s chair was the last one on 
the end nearest a corner of the Fire House. 
Howard made a wide circle around it, then began 
to draw a little nearer. He was watching for a 
good opportunity to light the cracker and give 
it a quick fling before anyone saw him. People 
were passing back and forth and around him 
and he knew he would have to be quick as a flash, 
and sly. 

He was getting ready to light the firecracker 
when Mr. Burton suddenly rose from his chair 
and strolled toward the front of the Fire House. 
Howard gave a disappointed “ Oof! ” and started 


FUN AT THE FIRE HOUSE 149 


after the big man. Mr. Burton was just enter¬ 
ing the hose house as Howard came round the 
corner. The large double doors had been thrown 
wide open and a broad space left clear for the 
picnickers who would later go up-stairs to the 
hall to dance. 

Half-way back on the cleared space Mr. Bur¬ 
ton met a fireman and stopped to speak to him. 
Howard gave a hasty glance about him. No one 
appeared to be noticing him. He took a box of 
safety matches from a coat pocket and softly 
lighted one. This was too good a chance to 
lose. He would not wait until the fireworks be¬ 
gan. He would throw the cracker and dash 
around the corner in half a second. 

Holding it as close to him as he dared he lit 
the fuse and hung on to the cracker until he was 
sure the fuse would not die out. Then he flung 
it straight toward Mr. Burton’s large white buck¬ 
skin ties as he stood with his feet rather wide 
apart talking loudly to the fireman. Howard 
had gone only a step or two when he bumped into 
half a dozen boys headed by Dick and John. 
They darted past him and ran into the Fire 
House all talking at once. And at that moment 
the firecracker exploded with a terrific bang. 


150 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

Mr. Burton gave a startled shout of, 
“ Wha-a-a-a! ” and made a long sideways leap 
that looked as though he was about to start to 
fly. The fireman jumped, too, then he called out 
angrily, “I’ll tend to you boys for that trick! 
I’ll tell your fathers on you. I know most of 
you.” 

“ We didn’t throw that cracker! ” Nelson 
White exclaimed indignantly. “ What do 
you take us for? We wouldn’t do such a 
thing! ” 

“ I know who threw it! ” Dick cried excitedly. 
“ You know the fellow we met just as we were 
coming in here.” 

“Aw, we came to look at the fire engine!” 
declared Ned Blake. “We wanted to show it 
to two boys who never saw it before.” 

“ You keep out of here,” warned the fireman. 
“ I wouldn’t trust you near the engine. I know 
you kids. You threw that cracker, all right 
enough. How about it, Mr. Burton? ” 

“ I guess, yes,” nodded the big man very dis¬ 
agreeably. His eyes came to rest on John. He 
stared frowningly at John and said, “ So you’re 
mixed up in this, too. You’re the boy who was 
with young Myers when he broke my windshield. 


FUN AT THE FIRE HOUSE 151 


Your father’d better take you in hand. You need 
correction.” 

Before John could think of a word to say in his 
own defense the fireman shooed them all out of 
the hose house and told them not to come in again 
without their parents. They went feeling boy¬ 
ishly grieved at the injustice done them. John 
felt the most hurt of all. Now Mr. Burton would 
have a worse opinion of him than before and he 
hadn’t done anything to merit it. 

“ I’ll get after that Howard Myers and make 
him own up to throwing that cracker. I’ll fight 
him if I have to. I’ll make him write it down on 
a paper and then I’ll show the paper to Mr. Bur¬ 
ton and that fireman.” All this Nelson White 
vengefully promised to do. 

“ You could lick him, Nelson,” Dick declared. 
“ You’re stronger than he is. It’s a wonder I 
didn’t get blamed. I always have to stand for 
the mischief the other kids do.” 

The first Roman candle suddenly began to 
throw off lovely, colored stars and a skyrocket 
trailed fire across the night sky with a long hiss. 
The boys’ indignation meeting broke up. With 
one accord they started for a spot they had earlier 
chosen as the best place to watch the fireworks. 


152 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


They were so absorbed and delighted by the many 
forms of brilliantly-colored fire that filled the sky 
and the wonderful set pieces they forgot Mr. 
Burton. 

John and Jimmy remembered him again when 
they were walking home from the Fire House 
ahead of their father and mother. It was after 
ten and they were both ready to turn in. Junior 
was so sleepy his father had to carry him. 

“ I wish that old Howard Myers would go and 
live at the North Pole,” John said crossly. 
“ Well never have much fun while he’s around 
here.” 

“ Maybe he wouldn’t be so fat if he did,” 
Jimmy chuckled faintly. “ He’d have to live on 
ice.” 

“ I know why he threw that firecracker at Mr. 
Burton.” John felt too cross to find any fun in 
Jimmy’s remark. “ It was because Mr. Burton 
told his father about the windshield. Mr. Bur¬ 
ton thinks I helped break it. Maybe he thinks 
I threw the firecracker. And I didn’t do either.” 

“ He can’t blame you any more than the rest 
of us about the firecracker,” comforted Jimmy. 

“ He’d rather think I threw it,” was John’s 
mournful reply. “You heard what he said to 


FUN AT THE FIRE HOUSE 153 


me. I was going to tell him I didn’t when that 
fireman chased us out of the Fire House. I 
wish Nelson White would make Howard Myers 
own up that he threw the firecracker, and write 
it down on a paper. Then, if Nelson showed the 
paper to Mr. Burton, he’d know I wasn’t such a 
mean boy as he thought I was.” 


CHAPTER XV 


NAMING THE HOUSE 

The Saturday after the Fourth brought the 
three Js a pleasant surprise in the shape of visi¬ 
tors. The noon train from the west left two 
little girls and a boy on the Lakeview station 
platform. They had hardly time to glance about 
them when they were greeted by their old friend, 
Mr. Hopkins, and piloted to his automobile. 
Into the car he whisked them amid the joyful 
giggles of the jubilant guests, Robert Wells, 
Helen Davis and Marjorie Mead. 

Jimmy was weeding his garden and John had 
just finished an hour of piano practice and gone 
to the kitchen for a cruller, as a reward of merit, 
when his father drove up with the three children. 
Jimmy spied his city friends first and came run¬ 
ning to meet them. John appeared on the 
veranda a moment later, a large sugared cruller 
in one hand, a pickle in the other. 

154 


NAMING THE HOUSE 155 

He dropped the pickle in his surprise but man¬ 
aged to hang on to the cruller as he bounced 
buoyantly down the steps and rushed toward the 
children in the car. Jimmy was already opening 
the door of the tonneau for Helen and Marjorie, 
who were both talking at once in their high sweet 
voices. 

“ We’re going to stay until Monday afternoon. 
Then we’re going back on the train,” Robert 
announced. “ I’m sure you two boys never 
thought of seeing us to-day.” 

“ No, we didn’t.” Jimmy smiled toward his 
father. “ Daddy’s a good secret keeper.” 

“ So’s Mother,” echoed John. “ You couldn’t 
get either of them to tell when something nice is 
going to happen to us until it just happens.” 

“ That’s all the more fun,” Helen said brightly 
as she gave John’s hand an energetic shake. 
“ My, what a lovely big house and yard! Oh, 
I’m sure we will have the best time here! Where 
is Junie? ” 

“ Out in the chicken-yard with Doodle, prob¬ 
ably,” Jimmy replied. 

“ Who’s Doodle? ” three voices instantly 
asked. 

John began to tell the little visitors about 


156 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


Doodle. They all laughed at Junior’s funny 
pet. 

“ We’ll go to the house and see your mother 
first, then we can go and hunt Junie and see 
Doodle, can’t we? ” Robert said eagerly to John. 

Just then Mrs. Hopkins came out on the ve¬ 
randa to welcome the week-end party of three. 
The guests had brought small bamboo suitcases 
with them and they felt quite important as they 
lugged them up the steps and into the house. 

Mrs. Hopkins took the two little girls up-stairs 
to one of the spare bedrooms. Robert was to 
share John’s and Jimmy’s room with them. The 
three children hardly took more than time to set 
down their suitcases then hustled down-stairs and 
outdoors with the boys to see the glories of the 
Hopkins’ delightful home. 

They were half-way across the back yard, each 
supplied with a puffy sugared cruller like the one 
John had been nibbling, when Helen cried out 
and pointed toward the chicken-yard. “ Oh, 
look!” She clapped her hands. Junior was 
walking slowly along by the outside of the high 
wire fence, holding up a cruller. After him, 
taking cautious little steps, came Doodle. 

“ That’s the first time Junior ever coaxed him 


NAMING THE HOUSE 157 

to come outside the chicken-yard!” John cried 
excitedly. 

The sound of loud voices and the noise made 
by the approaching visitors startled Doodle. He 
gave a hoarse, displeased squawk, did a queer 
teetering dance on one leg, flapped his wings and 
set off for the safety of the chicken-yard at a 
flying run. 

“ No-w-w-w! ” Junior’s voice rose high in 
disappointment. 

“ Oh, Junie, that’s too bad! ” Helen hurried 
to the little boy. 

Junior had taken a few steps after Doodle. 
When he saw Helen running toward him he for¬ 
got all about his frightened rooster and met the 
little girl with outstretched arms. 

Helen stooped down and caught Junior in her 
arms. She gave him a good hug which he re¬ 
turned with all his strength. Marjorie hugged 
him, too. Robert picked him up and swung him 
around and said: “ Gracious, what a big boy 
you’re getting to be! ” 

“ I are as big as John and Jimmy pretty 
soon,” he said proudly; “maybe in about two 
weeks.” 

“ Oh, ho! ” laughed Robert. “ You’ll have to 


158 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

hurry and grow then. Show us the chickens, 
Junie. We want to see Doodle.” 

“ A’right.” Junior led the way to the chicken- 
yard. Doodle was parading up and down one 
end of it as though he owned it. He looked 
suspiciously at the group of children, and, for 
once, would not come near Junior. Junior was 
not to be snubbed so easily. He trotted to the 
house and came back with his blouse pocket full 
of yellow com. Doodle quickly forgot his fears 
and went so far as to peck corn from Junior’s 
outstretched palm. The three city children 
thought this was wonderful. 

Before the three J’s could show their old-time 
playmates more of the place Mrs. Hopkins called 
them all to luncheon. After luncheon the six 
youngsters hurried outdoors again and spent a 
long happy afternoon together. So busy were 
they with their own fun they did not see Mr. 
Hopkins drive off in his car. It was nearly five 
o’clock when he went. When he came back he 
was not alone. On the front seat beside him was 
a boy who was smiling all over his freckled face. 

As it happened the Hopkins’ boys did not see 
the car when it returned. The children were 
down among the raspberry bushes gathering ber- 


NAMING THE HOUSE 159 

ries for a raspberry pudding which Netta had 
promised to make them the next day. 

“ As long as my boys haven’t seen you, Dick, 
you might as well keep out of sight until the 
party begins,” smiled Mr. Hopkins as he drove 
the car into the garage. “ We’ll hustle to the 
house and Mrs. Hopkins will tuck you away 
somewhere until it’s time for you to come 
out.” 

Mrs. Hopkins entered into the joke and hid 
Dick in a large closet off the dining-room. She 
and Netta were setting the table. It had a large 
centerpiece of pink roses and vases of pink roses 
at each end. From the middle of the tall center- 
piece narrow pink satin ribbons ran to each place. 
At each place was a square white card with pink 
roses painted on it and a verse of poetry under¬ 
neath the rose spray. 

Dick peeped through the glass door of the 
closet and watched the setting of the table with 
deep interest. Mrs. Hopkins had put the young¬ 
ster there because she knew that her boys could 
not come into the dining-room suddenly. The 
door opening into the hall was locked, and she 
and Netta were keeping an eye on the one leading 
into the kitchen. The day before Netta had baked 


160 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


a large black chocolate cake and at that very mo¬ 
ment there was a freezer of fresh peach ice-cream 
in the pantry. There were also plenty of other 
good things to eat which Netta had kept out of 
sight of the three Js. It looked as though some¬ 
thing very pleasant was about to happen. 

A few minutes before six the berry pickers 
trooped up to the kitchen door with the rasp¬ 
berries for the pudding. Netta met them on the 
back porch. 

“ Do yez be givin’ me them berries,” she said, 
“ an’ go round the other way into the house. An’ 
it’s your hands an’ faces yez are to wash right 
away an’ then go sit on the front porch till yez 
are called to dinner.” 

“ Why can’t we go through the kitchen? ” 
John demanded curiously. “ Who said we had 


“ Ask me nothin’. It’s yer ma says for me to 
tell yez. Now do yez be good boys and don’t 

spoil-” Netta stopped before she gave out 

any valuable information. 

“ Oh, hurray! ” Jimmy cried. “ It’s some kind 
of a nice surprise we’re going to have. Come on, 
kids. We don’t care if they won't let us into 
the kitchen.” 




NAMING THE HOUSE 


161 


“Course we don’t,” chimed in Marjorie and 
Helen. They turned their backs on the kitchen 
with a great flouncing of short skirts, pretending 
to be very much offended. 

Half an hour afterward the six children with 
shining, rosy faces, clean hands, hair in order, 
lined up on the front steps to await the call to 
dinner and the surprise. Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins 
were both smiling broadly as they came out on 
the veranda, arm in arm. 

“ Once upon a time,” began Mr. Hopkins, 
“ three boys I know thought they would like to 
give their house a name. They picked out 
‘ Happy House ’ for a name, but something hap¬ 
pened to them and their house wasn’t happy at 
all for a little while. So, of course, they couldn’t 
call their home ‘ Happy House ’ until they had 
set to work and made everything happy again. 
They tried hard after that trouble to keep things 
going smoothly, and they got along so well 
that-” 

“ You’re going to let us name our house now! 
Oh, Daddy! ” John and Jimmy said exactly the 
same words, and together. Both sprang up from 
the steps, their faces aglow. 

“ This is the best time for the naming party. 



162 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


We have Robert and Helen and Marjorie here,” 
John declared with enthusiasm. 

“ But not Dick.” Jimmy’s face fell. “ We 
ought to have Dick, because we told him all about 
it and then had to tell him not to come when we 
—well—when we got mad at each other.” 

“ That’s so.” John looked sober, too. 

“ But you didn’t let me finish what I was say¬ 
ing,” their father reminded. 

“We guessed what you were going to say,” 
John cried excitedly; “ now didn’t we? ” 

“ Um, well, perhaps,” teased Mr. Hopkins. 
“ About Dick, though-” 

“ I’m right here.” Dick dodged out from be¬ 
hind Mrs. Hopkins who had taken a staled 
squarely in front of the doorway. He had re¬ 
mained patiently in the closet until Mrs. Hopkins 
had suggested that he slip quietly to the front 
door behind herself and her husband and sud¬ 
denly pop out of the doorway at John and 
Jimmy. 

“Hi, this is great!” Jimmy pounced upon 
Dick and playfully shook him by the shoulders. 
“ This is some party. Where did you come from 
Yd like to know? ” John also welcomed Dick 
noisily. 



NAMING THE HOUSE 


163 


“ Your father came after me in the car and you 
fellows never saw us.” Dick beamed good na¬ 
ture at John and Jimmy. 

Jimmy named the three city children in turn. 
Dick nodded with more smiles to each of them. 

“ Now that we’re all here, the procession may 
as well start,” declared Mr. Hopkins. He bowed 
and offered an arm to Marjorie, who giggled as 
she took it. Mrs. Hopkins chose Robert. Junior 
insisted on clinging to Helen’s arm. John, Dick 
and Jimmy brought up the rear, as happy a trio 
as could be found. 

There were plenty of oh’s and ah’s from the 
children as they caught sight of the pretty pink 
and white table. Right beside the pink rose cen¬ 
terpiece stood a little cardboard house. It was 
painted dark green with white trimmings, and 
was exactly like their own house on a small scale. 
Over it waved a tiny white silk flag with “ Happy 
House ” painted on it in pink letters. At each 
place was a little pink and white straw basket 
filled with candy and perched on the basket han¬ 
dles were funny tiny animals made of papier- 
mache. Junior had a rooster on his basket han¬ 
dle and John and Jimmy’s were yellow cats. 
Helen had a green frog, Robert and Marjorie 


164 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

chuckled over two ugly-faced bulldogs and Dick’s 
had a comical little monkey. 

While they were all exclaiming over their fa¬ 
vors and the cunning house in the center of the 
table Netta brought in the consomme for Mr. 
Hopkins to serve. After that came roast chicken 
with dressing and hot, flaky biscuits and jellies 
and half a dozen kinds of fresh vegetables. Then 
came the longed-for dessert of black chocolate 
cake and peach ice-cream. The children lingered 
over this, but finally the table was cleared of the 
dessert dishes and Netta brought in a tray on 
which was a large glass pitcher of fruit lemonade 
and glasses. She set the tray before Mrs. Hop¬ 
kins and was about to go back to the kitchen 
when Mr. Hopkins said, “ Wait a minute, Netta. 
You’re in this, too.” 

“ Of course she is. Netta does a great deal 
toward making our house happy.” Mrs. Hop¬ 
kins moved her own chair so that there was room 
at her end of the table for Netta to place a chair 
beside her. She made Netta sit down, then said 
to her husband, “ I think we are ready now.” 

“Ahem!” Mr. Hopkins cleared his throat 
loudly, rolled his brown eyes, puffed out his chest 
and drew from his pocket a folded paper. “ I’m 


NAMING THE HOUSE 


165 


going to read you a poem I made up all by my¬ 
self. Don’t you laugh at me.” He frowned and 
wagged a severe head at the tableful of young¬ 
sters who had begun to laugh the minute he 
spoke. “ The name of this wonderful poem is 
‘ The Road to Happy House.’ ” He then read: 

“ The road to Happy House, my dears, is never hard 
to find, 

If you but keep your tempers and never are unkind. 

Cross words call imps and goblins forth and giants 
grim and tall:— 

They fill the road with shadows so you cannot see 
at all. 

They run and poke you in the ribs and pull you by 
the nose; 

They like to make you tumble down and spoil your 
bestest clothes. 

They tease you for they know you’re cross and so 
have lost the way, 

To bright and cheerful Happy House where chil¬ 
dren love to play.” 

There were several more verses to the poem. 
The eager young listeners were so pleased with 
it they made him read it through again to them. 
When he had gone through it the second time 
Mr. Hopkins said, “ Happy House has a little 
present for each one of us. In return we are going 
to give it the present of its name. Because three 


166 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

boys I know have tried so hard lately to be happy 
and keep happy we can give our house its name 
for good.” 

He rose from his chair and lifted the little 
green house from where it nestled under the nod¬ 
ding roses. He set it in front of Netta with a 
flourish. 

“ You may play Kriss Kringle, Netta,” he told 
the astonished maid. “ Open the front door of 
Happy House and fish out the presents. They 
had to be little ones, or the house wouldn’t have 
held them. Each one’s name is on his or her 
present.” 

“ Oh, now, Mr. Hopkins, I can’t be givin’ out 
the prisents like you,” Netta began to protest. 

“ Certainly you can. Go ahead and see if you 

5 I 

can t. 

Netta opened the tiny front door and slipped 
a hand inside the house. She pulled out a small 
square, flat package and looked it over for a 
name. In one corner was written “ Marjorie.” 
Marjorie clapped her hands with delight as Netta 
held the package out to her. She did not open it 
then. She waited for the others. Soon Helen 
had one the same shape and size as hers. One by 
one the toy house gave up its treasures until 


NAMING THE HOUSE 


167 


everyone at the table, even to Mr. Hopkins, had 
a present. 

They all had a good time opening the packages 
and admiring one another’s gifts. Marjorie and 
Helen had received sets of dainty gold lace pins. 
Dick and Robert drew fountain pens, and John 
and Jimmy coin purses. Junior’s present was a 
small flashlight. Mrs. Hopkins and Netta were 
both pleased with fancy gold pins and Mrs. Hop¬ 
kins had remembered her husband with a set of 
gold cuff links. 

After the presents were given out Mr. Hop¬ 
kins stood up and made a funny speech to the 
little house on the table. He thanked the toy 
house for having been so generous. He then 
christened it Happy House. 

“ That means,” he told the delighted children, 
“ we have really named our big house. The lit¬ 
tle one here only stands for the big one. Now 
we’ll ask Mother to pour us all a glass of fruit 
lemonade and we’ll drink to the health and pros¬ 
perity of Happy House.” 

The toast was drunk with plenty of cheering 
and flourishing of lemonade glasses. Afterward 
the naming party went into the living-room for 
a “ sing.” John had been taking piano lessons 


168 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


for two years. He now played and the other 
children sang school songs. 

“ Let’s go out and have a game of prisoner’s 
base before dark,” proposed Jimmy when they 
had sung most of the songs they knew. “ We’ll 
have time to play just about one game before it 
gets too dark to see where we’re going.” 

“ Marjorie and Helen ought to choose sides 
’cause they’re the girls, and company,” John said. 

“ Yes, of course,” nodded Jimmy. “ Go 
ahead, girls.” 

Helen chose Dick and John and Marjorie 
chose Robert and Jimmy. Junior had dropped 
to sleep before the sing was over and lay cuddled 
up on the davenport in the living-room, so no one 
chose him. 

At nine o’clock Dick had to go home. Mr. 
Hopkins took him in the car and the other chil¬ 
dren went along. On the way back they began 
to feel sleepy and when they came from the out¬ 
side summer darkness into the white light of the 
hall they blinked like a group of young owls. 

Robert was to sleep in the same bed with 
Jimmy during his visit. He had hardly touched 
the bed before he went fast asleep. Jimmy 
stayed awake long enough to say to John: “ I’m 


NAMING THE HOUSE 


169 


glad the house is named at last. Now, even if 
we aren't as good as we ought to be, we can't un¬ 
name it. Only we'll have to watch ourselves 
harder than ever to show Daddy and Mother that 
we’re not going to lose our way to ■ Happy 
House' like the poem said." 


CHAPTER XVI 


SUNSHINE 

The week after Marjorie, Helen and Robert 
visited the three Js, another visitor appeared at 
Happy House. Netta went home on the train 
for over Sunday. Mr. Hopkins had business in 
the city on Monday so he told Netta he would 
bring her back in the car on Monday afternoon. 
When the car rolled up the drive about five 
o’clock that afternoon, John and Jimmy were 
playing catch on the lawn. John spied the ap¬ 
proaching car first. He ran across the grass to¬ 
ward it, whooping like an Indian. 

“ Hey, Tip! ^ Good old Tip!” he yelled. 
“ And did you come to see us, old boy? ” He 
had caught sight of a rough-coated black and 
white dog on the back seat beside Netta. 

“Bow-wow! Wow-wow-wow! ” Tip re¬ 
turned John’s greeting in a loud, joyful series 
of barks. 

John and Jimmy had both reached the car by 
170 


SUNSHINE 


171 


this time and were holding open the door. Tip 
bounded out of the car, leaped upon the two boys 
in a wild frenzy of good spirits, and tried to lick 
their hands and faces with his rough tongue. 

“ It’s crazy he is,” Netta declared, laughing, as 
she got out of the car. “ Be aisy, Tip. Don’t 
yez try to eat up the boys. It’s no manners yez 
has, at all, at all. Down, now, an’ be shakin’ 
hands pretty.” 

For once Tip paid no attention to his mistress. 

“ Little he cares for what I’m tellin’ him. He’s 
pleased enough to be turnin’ himself inside out. 
I’ll be lavin’ him to yez two to manage. It’s 
more than time I was in me kitchen and seein’ to 
the dinner.” Netta gave Tip’s ragged head a 
fond pat and hurried toward the house. 

Tip looked after her for a second, his head on 
one side. She did not look back or call to him 
so he renewed his leaps and prances about the 
boys. They hugged and wooled him to his heart’s 
content. 

“ How long are you going to stay, Tip? ” John 
asked the setter. 

“ Bow-wow! ” Tip offered his paw. 

“ Let’s see if he can do all the tricks he used 
to do. Sit up. Tip.” Jimmy held up one hand 


172 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


and snapped his fingers. Tip sat up like a gen¬ 
tleman. Jimmy next ordered him to play dead. 
Tip flopped down on the grass and stretched out 
stiffly. He lay still until Jimmy said, “ Get up, 
Tip. You’re alive again. Now show us how a 
lame dog walks.” Tip had not forgotten this 
trick or several others which Jimmy put him 
through. 

“ I hope Tip stays all summer,” was John’s 
wish. “ We ought to make him a house.” 

“We could make him one of a big packing 
box. There are some in the cellar.” 

“ Let’s make him one to-morrow after break¬ 
fast.” John was taken with the idea of fixing 
Tip a house. 

“ No, sir.ee, I can’t.” Jimmy’s answer was de¬ 
cided. “ I must weed my garden. You ought to 
weed yours.” 

“ U-m-m—that’s so. Well, we can make a 
dog house day after to-morrow.” 

Directly after breakfast the next day Jimmy 
went out to his garden to do some hard work. 
John lingered on the lawn to romp with Junior 
and Tip. Junior was so glad to see Tip he forgot 
Doodle for a while. So Doodle missed the after¬ 
breakfast treat which Junior always brought him. 


SUNSHINE 


173 


“Hi, there, John,” Jimmy shouted to John 
from the middle of his garden, “ you’d better get 
busy and go to weeding. I saw some weeds at 
the upper end of your garden that are about three 
feet tall.” 

“ I know it. I’m going to get at ’em pretty 
soon. I want to find Sunshine and Taffy first. 
I want to see what they think of Tip. They’ll 
have to get acquainted with him, you know, so 
they won’t scratch him.” 

“ Taffy’s in the garage,” Jimmy called back. 
“ He’s watching for a mouse, or maybe a rat. I 
saw him when I went to get my hoe. Sunshine 

is-” Jimmy stopped. He remembered that 

he had not seen Sunshine since early that morn¬ 
ing. He had been rather careless in the past few 
days about keeping an eye on his pet. Still Sun¬ 
shine had not been near the Myers’ chicken-yard 
that Jimmy knew of since Howard had fright¬ 
ened the big cat away. 

John had already started for the garage with 
Junior and Tip at his heels. Before long he 
came over to where Jimmy was weeding, laugh¬ 
ing as he ran. 

“ What do you think? ” he cried. “ Taffy put 
his back up high and walked clear across the 


174 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

garage sideways when he saw Tip. He growled 
like everything and Tip was kind of afraid. He 
whined and wiggled and then he turned around 
and ran right out of the garage. I couldn’t coax 
him into the garage again. He’d go as far as the 
door, then he’d bark a little and run back. I’m 
going to find Sunshine now and see how he’s 
going to act.” 

John ran off on a hunt for Sunshine. He could 
not find the Angora puss so he and Junior took 
Tip out to the chicken park to see what he 
thought of the chickens. Tip charged briskly in 
among a group of hens that were enjoying a dish 
of soaked-up bread which Netta had just given 
them. They scattered in all directions with loud 
squawks of fright. 

Tip ran a few steps after the fleeing hens. 
This frightened them more than ever. They 
hopped and half flew about the chicken-yard in a 
panic. Doodle gave a wild “ Harrup! ” as Tip 
ran past him and leaped straight into the air. 
This made John and Junior laugh. John called 
Tip to come out of the park and Junior tried to 
calm Doodle’s fears, but the big rooster would 
not come near him. 

“ Doodle’s ’fraid of me now. I are goin’ to 


SUNSHINE 


175 


get him a cracker; then he will like me again,” 
Junior told John as they left the chicken-yard. 

“ All right. You go ahead and get Doodle a 
cracker, Junie. I’ve got to go pull weeds in my 
garden.” 

While John was introducing Tip to Taffy and 
the chickens Jimmy had made progress with his 
weeding. Almost half of his plot was clear. He 
was determined to stick to the task until he had 
finished it. He wished to have his garden in good 
trim before his father went away. Mr. Hopkins’ 
vacation would be over in a week. He would not 
be home again until the middle of August and 
then only for a few days. By that time Jimmy’s 
corn, beets, onions and perhaps the tomatoes 
would be ripe. John’s radishes and string-beans 
would be ripened and gone before then. 

John landed in his garden with a rush and a 
bounce. “ My, you’ve a lot done, haven’t you? ” 
he exclaimed half enviously. “ I’ll have to hustle. 
Did you hear the chickens making a fuss? Tip 
scared ’em silly. You should have seen Doodle. 
Oh, ha, ha! ” John hurst out laughing. “He 
jumped right up in the air.” 

It was nearly four o’clock when Jimmy said, 
“ There! ” triumphantly and flipped a last bunch 


176 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

of coarse grass onto the weed pile. “ I’m going 
to cultivate my corn now. You won’t find any 
weeds in my garden.” He walked down among 
the rows of corn to where he had left the culti¬ 
vator. He had stooped for it when the shrill, 
sharp clamor of frightened chickens made him 
straighten up quickly and glance toward the 
chicken-yard. 

“ Tip’s in the chicken park again,” he said to 
John. “ Junie must have let him in. Why, no! ” 
he continued in surprise; “ there’s Junie on the 
lawn with Tip. I wonder what’s the matter with 
the chickens. Guess I’d better go and see.” 

“ That racket’s not in our park,” John 
yelled after him. “ It’s over at Myers’ park, I 
think.” 

Jimmy caught the words “ Myers’ park ” and 
turned in a flash. Without a word he set off at 
top speed toward the Myers’ chicken-yard. Yes, 
John was right. The noise was coming from 
there. The chickens were making a great fuss 
and someone was shouting, “ Go after him! 
Shoot him, Dan!” Jimmy’s heart gave a 
frightened leap. That was Howard Myers’ 
voice. He and the hired man were after poor 
Sunshine. Jimmy was sure of it. It seemed as 


SUNSHINE 177 

though he could not get over the ground fast 
enough. 

He reached the chicken park just as the hired 
man came running out of the garage, a shotgun 
in one hand. Howard was in the park, scream¬ 
ing at the man, Dan, to hurry. The gate to the 
park stood open. Jimmy dashed full tilt through 
the gateway. He had made up his mind as he 
ran to pick Sunshine up in his arms and run 
with him. The hired man would not then dare 
fire a shot for fear of hitting him. 

“ Hi, you, get out of here! ” blustered Howard 
when he saw Jimmy. 

Jimmy never even glanced at him. His eyes 
were on a broad streak of orange-yellow. It was 
tearing around and around the park sending the 
cowardly chickens fluttering in every direction. 
That streak was Sunny. But what was the mat¬ 
ter with him? Then Jimmy saw Sunshine had 
something in his mouth that he was shaking with 
all his strength. 

“ He’s got one of our chickens! Shoot him, 
Dan! ” Howard ordered at top voice. “ Hurry 
up now! ” 

“He hasn't either” shouted Jimmy desper¬ 
ately. “ He’s caught a big rat. Don’t you dare 


178 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

fire at him! ” Jimmy sprang toward Dan. His 
face was white; his eyes were blazing. “ He’s 
my cat. He never touches the chickens. He’s 
worth a lot of money. You’d better be careful 
what you do to him.” 

Dan looked hard at angry Jimmy and lowered 
his gun. “ Go easy now,” he said not unkindly. 
“ I ain’t took no shot at him yet. Let’s see what 
he’s wallopin’ round there in the dirt.” 

“ It’s a chicken,” persisted Howard. “ Aw, 
come on, Dan, or else give me that gun. I’ll fix 
that old yellow cat.” He sprang forward to take 
the gun from Dan’s hands. 

“ Here, get away. Keep your hands off that 
gun. Yer paw don’t ’low you to tech it, and you 
know it,” rebuked Dan roughly, swinging the 
gun out of Howard’s snatching reach. “ That 
yaller cat has got a rat; a whoppin’ big one, too. 
He’s some cat, he is.” 

“ Ah-h-h-h! ” Jimmy gave a long sigh of re¬ 
lief as he heard these words. He started toward 
Sunshine who was still shaking the rat. Sud¬ 
denly the big cat gave it a final shake and flipped 
it into the air. It hit the ground in front of him 
and lay still. Instantly he pounced upon it, 
growling. 


SUNSHINE 


179 


“ Why, Sunny, you good old fellow, you did 
catch a rat, didn’t you? ” Jimmy advanced cau¬ 
tiously toward Sunshine. He wished to pick his 
pet up and get away from the Myers’ chicken 
park in a hurry. As Jimmy stretched forth his 
hands, Sunshine eluded them, caught up the rat 
and trotted off with it toward one end of the park. 
“ I’m not going to take away your rat, Sunny. 
You and I’ll take it home. Come here,” coaxed 
Jimmy, following the cat. 

“ Yes, take your old cat and go home.” How¬ 
ard was very angry at the way things had turned 
out. “ He catches chickens, just the same. He 
only happened to catch that rat to-day.” How¬ 
ard had raised his voice to a scream. 

“ He doesn't catch chickens, and you know 
it.” Jimmy turned on Howard in a flash of just 
wrath. “ You only say that to be mean. You 
think my brother John told about you breaking 
the windshield. Well, he didn’t. The man in 
the store down by the lake saw you break it. 
That isn’t the only thing you did to Mr. Burton, 
either. What about the firecracker you threw 
under his feet over at the Fire House? ” 
Jimmy’s own tones had risen. 

“ What—what—who says I-” 


Howard 


180 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

began. He ran toward Jimmy, his face red as a 
poppy. 

“ What’s the matter here? ” a new, very loud 
voice suddenly asked. Into the chicken park 
strode Howard’s father. His heavy eyebrows 
were drawn in a deep frown. “ What mischief 
are you up to now, sir? ” He reached in 
front of Howard and half reached out toward 
him. 

“ I haven’t done a thing,” Howard shouted, 
ducking away from his father. 

“ What are you doing with that gun, Dan? ” 
Mr. Myers’ glance roved to the hired man. 
“ What’s going on here? ” 

“ Oh, nothin’ much. Mr. Howard said a big 
cat was after the chickens and so I went after 
the shotgun,” Dan replied somewhat lamely. 
“ The cat wa’n’t after nothin’ but a rat, though. 
He got it, too.” 

“Well, I never!” Mr. Myers had caught 
sight of Jimmy and Sunshine now. Jimmy was 
bending down, patting Sunshine. Sunny was 
still growling softly, his forepaws on the rat’s 
body. “ Whose boy are you, and is that your 
cat? ” asked the banker. 

“ I’m Jimmy Hopkins and I live over there,” 


SUNSHINE 


181 


Jimmy said rather stiffly and pointed toward his 
home. “ This is my cat, Sunshine.” 

“ So you are my neighbor.” Mr. Myers’ harsh 
tones softened. He liked the looks of the sturdy, 
blue-eyed boy who answered him so directly. “ I 
don’t suppose you’d care to sell your cat, would 
you? We need one here that is a real ratter. 
The rats have been troublesome here this sum¬ 
mer.” 

“ I wouldn’t sell Sunshine for all the money in 
the world,” Jimmy said energetically. He smiled 
a little as he said it. “ I’m glad he caught the 
rat, but I’d rather he’d stay at home. Only, if 
he should ever come over here again, he’s not 
looking for chickens. He walks in our chicken- 
yard whenever he wants to and never touches a 
single chicken. He’s a good cat and very bright. 
We’d feel awful if—if anything bad happened to 
him.” 

“ I see he’s a full-blooded Angora. He’s wel¬ 
come to come over here if he wants to. Nothing 
bad will happen to him on these premises. I 
wish he would come over often and catch a few 
of these pests.” Mr. Myers bent down and said, 
“ Let me see your catch, old yellow lad.” 

Sunshine objected a little, then let Mr. Myers 


182 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

pick up the dead rat by the tail. It was as large 
as a ixuii -grown kitten. 

Howard had been listening to his father and 
Jimmy with his mouth half open. He was com¬ 
pletely taken back by the way things were going. 
Dan had quietly slipped out of the chicken-yard 
and gone back to the garage. He felt rather 
cheap over his share in the recent excitement. 

While Mr. Myers was inspecting the dead rat 
Jimmy gathered Sunshine into his arms. He 
dared not glance toward Howard for fear he 
would laugh. He knew Howard was too greatly 
afraid of his father to say a word against Sun¬ 
shine. 

“ I think I’d better go. Please may Sunshine 
have the rat? I think he’d like it.” Jimmy spoke 
rather shyly. He did not wish to be rude, but 
he was anxious to get away. 

“ Certainly, certainly.” Mr. Myers handed 
the rat to Jimmy who had some trouble holding 
to it and Sunshine, too. He finally had to set 
Sunshine down, he thrashed about so energet¬ 
ically. 

“ I’ll have to coax him home with the rat, I 
guess.” Jimmy walked a few steps toward the 
gate, dangling the rat before Sunny’s eyes. 


SUNSHINE 183 

Sunshine trotted briskly after his hard-earned 
trophy. 

“ Good-bye, Mr. Myers.” Jimmy paused just 
inside the gateway. “ Thank you for what you 
just said about Sunshine.” He did not look at 
Howard. 

“ You’re welcome, my boy. Come and see us 
again,” was the hearty response. “ Remember 
your cat won’t be hurt if he comes over here.” 

“ Thank you, sir,” Jimmy said again. He 
walked on, Sunshine following. John met him 
at the fence that divided their lot from the Myers’ 
property. On account of his trouble with How¬ 
ard he had hung back. He had no idea of what 
had really happened or he would have hustled 
over to Myers’ to help Jimmy fight for Sunshine. 
He had hung around near the fence waiting till 
Jimmy came back. 

“ I wish I’d gone, too,” John said over and 
over as Jimmy told him what had happened. “ I 
wouldn’t have been afraid of that old fatty How¬ 
ard. My, if you hadn’t got there when you did 
the hired man might have shot Sunshine! ” 

“ I don’t believe he would have.” Jimmy 
shook a positive head. “ He seemed to like 
Sunny. He said he was ‘ some cat.’ Maybe I 


184 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


shouldn’t have said what I did to Howard about 
the firecracker, but I was so mad at him. His 
father is a fine man. It’s too bad Howard is such 
a mean boy. Probably his father would like to 
feel proud of him, but he can’t because he acts 
so. Anyway, I’m glad Sunny is safe and won’t 
ever be hurt if he goes over there again. One 
thing’s sure, Dan won’t hurt him, and Howard 
daren’t.” 


CHAPTER XVII 


THE CAVE DWELLERS 

Before Mr. Hopkins went away he gave the 
boys’ gardens a careful looking over and pro¬ 
nounced Jimmy’s considerably ahead of John’s. 
Junior’s garden had become nothing more than a 
weed patch. 

Hardly a day passed now without bringing 
Dick; sometimes for only an hour; sometimes to 
spend a whole morning or afternoon. Occa¬ 
sionally the Hopkins boys went to Dick’s house 
to play, but their own home was the best place 
for good times on account of the large space they 
had to run in. The three boys played catch and 
practiced running bases every day. Most of 
Dick’s school chums were away on vacations, but 
they would be back to Lakeview early in August. 
The boys were then going to organize their great 
baseball team. They had already named their 
team the “ Winners.” 

“ I wish it would hurry up and be August,” 
185 


186 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

sighed Dick one sunny July morning. He and 
John and Jimmy had thrown themselves down 
under a huge elm tree to rest after doing some 
spirited base running. 

“ We’ll be about the best players on the team 
because we’ve practiced the most,” John pre¬ 
dicted. 

“ Sure we will,” agreed Dick, “ only I get tired 
of practicing all the time with just three of us. 
I’m kind of tired of most everything we play.” 
Dick jumped up from the grass and began turn¬ 
ing a series of handsprings. He presently keeled 
over and landed almost in Jimmy’s lap. “ Let’s 
go over in the field and fly your kite, Jimmy,” he 
suggested. 

“ All right. Wait till I go and get it.” 
Jimmy started amiably toward the house for his 
kite. He soon reappeared with it and the trio 
set out for a broad, gently-sloping meadow not 
far below Happy House. 

“ It doesn’t go up worth a cent,” John said dis¬ 
gustedly after the three had made half a dozen 
attempts to fly the big blue kite and had failed to 
keep it in the air. “ There isn’t a speck of 
breeze.” 

“ I wish we had a cave. I was reading a dandy 


THE CAVE DWELLERS 187 

story last night about some boys who had a cave 
in the side of a hill. They dug it out and fixed 
it themselves. They used to go there and sit and 
tell fairy stories and have parties and all that.” 
Dick spoke eagerly. “ I wish there was a hill 
around here. We'd dig a cave, too. But all the 
hills are far from here.” 

“ We could have a cave, anyway.” Jimmy was 
seized with a bright idea. 

“ How? ” Dick and John said in the same 
breath. 

“ Well, we could dig a great big hole in the 
ground, and then we could put some boards on 
top of it and put dirt and grass over the boards 
and leave a place at one side to crawl in and out 
of. The boards would keep the dirt from coming 
down on us and the grass on top of them would 
make it look like the rest of the grass around 
where the cave was dug.” 

“ That's so; we could.” Dick promptly fell in 
with this idea. “ We could dig it right in this 
field and nobody would care.” 

“ The man it belonged to might,” John said 
prudently. 

“ It doesn’t belong to a man. My father says 
it belongs to an old lady who lives in New York. 


188 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

She never comes here. The kids have used it for 
a playground for a long while.” 

“ We could dig one on our lot, but a cave over 
here would be more fun. We could take off the 
roof and fill up the hole again when we got tired 
of the cave,” planned Jimmy. “ We’d only have 
fun and not do any harm.” 

“ ’Course we wouldn’t. Nobody’d say a word 
to us. I’m sure of that,” Dick returned posi¬ 
tively. “ Let’s find a good place now for the 
cave and start digging this morning. How many 
shovels have you at your house? ” 

“ Oh, three or four.” It was John who an¬ 
swered. “ We’ve all kinds of tools in the garage. 
We can bring the ones we need over here, only 
we’ll have to always remember to take ’em back.” 

Delighted with the cave idea the three young¬ 
sters trotted around the meadow in an earnest 
hunt for a suitable spot for the cave. They 
finally chose one at the left-hand side of the 
meadow on a slight rise of ground. It did not 
take long to run back to Happy House for the 
necessary tools. John carried two spades, Dick, 
a spade and a hoe and Jimmy, a pickaxe. 

All the rest of that hot July morning the cave- 
diggers worked like beavers. At lunch time Dick 


THE CAVE DWELLERS 189 

telephoned his mother and asked permission to 
stay at Happy House for luncheon. The mo¬ 
ment the three boys had finished eating back they 
hurried to their digging. 

That was the first day of a week of hard labor. 
They planned the cave on a large scale and it 
took time to carry out the plan. They even got 
a wheelbarrow and dumped the dirt from the 
hole they dug in one corner of the meadow. Dick 
had been sure no one would interfere with them, 
and no one did. 

It took one whole day to lug light boards from 
a pile behind the Hopkins’ garage over to the 
meadow. These boards served as a roof for the 
cave. The boys had carefully saved the grass sod 
they had dug up. The boards were to be hidden 
by a layer of dirt and the sod placed on top of 
that. 

“ Where the cave is doesn’t look like the rest of 
the grass now ’cause the grass we dug up’s wilted. 
After it rains on it two or three times it will look 
just the same.” This was Dick’s opinion after 
the last sod had been stuck in place and the cave 
diggers stood viewing their work with admira¬ 
tion. 

“Oh, nobody will notice it,” John said. 


190 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


“ When the grass gets green again it will be a 
secret cave. You can hardly tell now where the 
doorway is. To-morrow let’s have a party here. 
We’ll bring a book and something to eat and 
some candles to see by, and have a fine time.” 

“ I’ll bring ‘ The Fort in the Forest/ That’s 
a good story,” offered Jimmy. “ When the fel¬ 
lows come back they’ll think our cave is great.” 

“We’ll ask Nelson and Charlie and Merritt 
Wade first of all. They are the nicest fellows in 
our crowd,” Dick said. 

“ I’m glad the cave’s done. I’ve worked hard 
enough.” John rubbed the palms of his hands, 
grown hard from holding a shovel. “ If Howard 
Myers knew about this cave maybe he’d come 
and spoil it.” This alarming thought happened 
to cross John’s mind. 

“ He never comes over here,” Dick replied a 
little anxiously. “ Look how long we’ve been 
digging the cave and we’ve never seen him over 
this way once. We’ll make our fellows keep the 
cave a secret.” 

The next afternoon John and Dick and Jimmy 
had a wonderful time sitting on soap boxes in 
the dark and somewhat damp recesses of their 
cave, feasting on sugar cookies and bananas and 


THE CAVE DWELLERS 191 

reading “ The Fort in the Forest” by candle¬ 
light. Junior came to the party, but went back 
on the cave after he had been in it five or ten 
minutes. Jimmy had to take him home as he 
could not be trusted to go so far alone. 

Both the Hopkins boys and Dick were so well 
pleased with the cave they would have liked to 
go and live in it. They often talked about what 
fun it would be to stay in it over night. All three 
knew better than to ask permission of their par¬ 
ents to do so. John and Jimmy had been rather 
surprised that Mrs. Hopkins had not questioned 
them about their cave. They had talked of noth¬ 
ing else at meals, yet not once had she asked 
where it was or whether they had had permission 
to dig it in the meadow. Mrs. Hopkins’ mind, 
as it happened, had not been on caves. She and 
Netta were busy with the summer canning and 
preserving, and there had also been a dressmaker 
at the house for two weeks. 

The first days of August brought Nelson 
White, Charlie Newton and Merritt Wade back 
to Lakeview. They hailed the cave with joy and 
the six members of the Winners baseball team 
made it their headquarters. The three other boys 
they had picked for the team were still away, but 


192 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

would be home the last of that week. Until 
they should arrive on the scene the six chums 
practiced hard every pleasant day in the meadow. 
After such strenuous practice it was great fun 
for the lively sextette to squeeze themselves into 
the cave and there eat quantities of ginger and 
sugar cookies, doughnuts, fruit or whatever each 
could most easily beg from his home kitchen. 
They played they were robbers; tramps; early 
settlers hiding from the Indians. Each brought 
a few of his most cherished books from home and 
they made a bookshelf of two smooth pieces of 
board to hold them. As they sat munching their 
picnic lunches they took turns reading from a 
book. 

“ We certainly can play ball,” Nelson White 
declared warmly one cool August morning as the 
players gathered around him for a brief rest after 
some spirited work. Dick alone had not joined 
them. 

“ We’re a good swift team.” Charlie Newton 
wagged his head complacently. “ Wonder 
what’s the matter with Dick? Maybe his father 
made him stay home and clean up store.” 

“ Here he comes now! See him; way across 
the meadow? ” Jimmy pointed. 


THE CAVE DWELLERS 193 


“ Yes, and he’s carrying a basket, and walking 
slow as can be. I see where we have some dandy 
eats.” Merritt Wade smacked his lips. 

“ Guess what I’ve got,” hailed Dick. 

His chums guessed in concert. Each said 
something different. 

“ Not one of you said it. Look! ” He lifted 
a fluff of paper napkins and showed the boys six 
fat, brown little pies. 

“Oh, urn; don’t they smell good?” Nelson 
caught a whiff of their spicy fragrance. 

“ They’re blackberry pies, and they’re stuffed 
full of berries. My mother made ’em just for 
us. I had to wait till they were baked. That’s 
why I was late,” Dick explained. “ We’d better 
eat ’em while they’re warm. They taste so good 
and fresh then.” 

“ Yes, ’cause it’s quite a while till lunch time,” 
John said. “We can finish the ‘ Voyage of the 
Seabird ’ while we’re eating ’em.” 

“ After that we’ll practice again. It’s nice and 
cool, so it’s a fine day to work.” Jimmy’s am¬ 
bition was to have a perfect team. 

John and Jimmy and Dick had soon found 
reading by candle-light most trying to their eyes. 
Dick had brought a large, old-fashioned lantern 


194 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

from home which was just what they needed. 
When they wanted to read they set a soap box 
on end in the middle of the cave and placed the 
lantern upon it. 

One after another the chums doubled them¬ 
selves and disappeared into the mouth of the 
cave. Dick brought up the rear with the pies. 
By the time he was in Jimmy had the lantern set 
up and was lighting it while Nelson already had 
the “ Voyage of the Seabird ” in his hand. He 
began the reading but took a large bite from his 
pie before he started. The others plentifully 
smeared their hands and faces with the juicy 
dainty as they listened to the absorbing story. 

“ ‘ Man the boats! She’s going to smash on the 
rocks!’” read Nelson. “ ‘ The sailors worked 
desperately and the boats were soon lowered. 
They had scarcely got into them and away from 
the plunging ship when she went to her doom. 
Crash!! Crash!!”’ 

But the “ crash!! ” was not only in the story. 
From directly over their heads came a crash so 
sudden and startling three boys and their soap 
boxes upset. They heard a snapping and crack¬ 
ing of boards; little showers of dirt filtered down 
the cave’s sides. A general howl went up from 


THE CAVE DWELLERS 19 5 


the cave dwellers. Up above them they caught 
sounds of voices; one very loud and wrathful. 

“ Hi, there! ” Nelson poked his head out of 
the mouth of the cave like an inquiring turtle. 
He suddenly dropped back into the cave and 
whispered in a half-frightened way, “ It’s Mr. 
Burton. He’s sitting on top of the cave. I guess 
maybe he fell down.” 

There was a second of silence among the cave 
dwellers, then Dick giggled softly. That started 
the others and they all laughed under their 
breath. Just then the boards creaked and 
cracked again. A little more dirt fell. Mr. Bur¬ 
ton was getting to his feet. Next instant he stood 
before the cave’s mouth calling angrily, “ Come 
out of that hole, you youngsters. I know you’re 
in there! ” 


CHAPTER XVIII 


BOY FRIENDS 

“ We’ll have to do as he says.” Jimmy blew 
out the lantern, set it in a niche they had made 
for it near the mouth of the cave and dropped to 
his hands and knees. 

“ So there you are! This is a nice smart thing 
you young vandals have been up to, isn’t it? 
Who told you you could dig up my meadow and 
make a man-trap of it? I might have broken my 
leg.” Mr. Burton looked as though he would like 
to take Jimmy and shake him. The young man 
with him looked as though he would like to laugh. 

One by one the other boys appeared in time for 
the scolding the angry man was roaring out. 
John came out of the cave last. When Mr. Bur¬ 
ton saw him he said, “ Aha; so it’s you, sir! I 
might have known it. Always to be found where 
there’s mischief, aren’t you? This is the third 
time I’ve caught you at something.” 

“ Mr. Burton,” Jimmy sprang to John’s de- 
196 


BOY FRIENDS 


197 


fense, “ my brother isn’t to blame for things you 
think he is at all. He-” 

“No, I’m not!" John almost shouted. “I 
didn't break your windshield, or throw a single 
stone! I didn't throw that firecracker! This 

cave-” John stopped stammeringly. “I 

helped make it, but we didn’t know-” 

“ Of course you didn’t.” Mr. Burton spoke 
very disagreeably. “You never do any of this 
mischief, but you’re always right there when it 
happens. I dare say you put these other boys up 
to it, and that’s worse yet. I’m going to see your 
father about you and ask him to take you in 
hand. That-” 

“ Our father isn’t at home now,” began Jimmy. 
“ When he does come home-” 

“ Now that will do.” Mr. Burton held up his 
hand at Jimmy. “ You’re too ready to talk.” 

“ John isn’t to blame.” Dick now spoke for 
his chum. “ He-” 

“ No, he isn’t,” came in indignant chorus from 
the other three boys. They all began to defend 
John at once. 

“ Stop it. Not another word.” Mr. Burton 
turned fiercely upon the boys. “ Now you listen 
to what I have to say. Don’t one of you ever 








198 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

dare set foot on this meadow again. It belongs 
to me and I’m going to make a golf course of it. 
I’ll have this hole filled up at once before another 
person steps on it and falls. The idea of tearing 
up the ground like that! It’s simply outrageous! 
Now run along, all of you, and be glad I am let¬ 
ting you off so easy. Go on; skip! ” 

Not one of the boys started. Each was re¬ 
membering the treasure within the cave. 

“ We’ve some of our things in the cave.” 
Jimmy eyed the big man almost defiantly. He 
was smarting under the injustice done John and 
all of them, and he showed it. Man and boy 
stared at each other for a long minute. 

“ Get them out.” Mr. Burton’s frown relaxed 
a little. He gave one hand an impatient wave 
toward the cave. 

Jimmy beckoned to Nelson. “ I’ll go in and 
get the stuff and hand it out to you,” he said. 

It was a very quiet company which stood there 
while the boys’ belongings were being handed to 
Nelson. Two or three times during the process 
the young man with Mr. Burton walked a little 
way off, then came back again. Dick, watching 
him curiously, was sure he was laughing. 

Jimmy brought out even the soap boxes. 


BOY FRIENDS 


199 


These came last. By the time they were out Mr. 
Burton did not look quite so cross. 

“ That’s all.” Jimmy looked squarely at Mr. 
Burton. “ We’re sorry you fell. We did not 
know it was your field. We thought no one 
would care if we made a cave here. We were 
going to put all the dirt back when we were 
through playing with it. We won’t come here 
again. If you will come to see my father about 
John he will be glad to talk with you. He knows 
John never tells what’s not true.” 

Jimmy picked up an armful of books and a 
soap box and turned abruptly away. “ Come on, 
fellows,” he said to his companions. 

The others divided the cave’s furnishings and 
the little procession started across the field. Not 
a boy looked back. 

“ That boy who talked up to you is a pretty 
fine sort,” remarked the young man to Mr. Bur¬ 
ton as the big man stood shaking his head at the 
cave. While the greater part of the roof had 
held up under Mr. Burton’s weight he had 
broken through several light boards directly in 
the center of the roof. That part now sagged 
considerably below the rest of the roof. 

“ Humph! ” was all Mr. Burton returned. 


200 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

The crestfallen cave dwellers, who had now 
lost their cave, trudged on, sympathizing with 
John as they went. 

“ It’s just as I said,” cried Nelson White. 
“ We’ll have to fix a paper and make Howard 
Myers sign it and then give it to Mr. Burton.” 

“ But that’s like telling tales,” Jimmy said 
with a frown. 

“ Well, is it right for Mr. Burton to believe 
John did things when we know he didn’t? We 
have to prove that and then show Mr. Burton 
the proof. He knows Howard Myers threw 
stones, but he thinks John threw them, too. He’s 
not sure which one of ’em broke the windshield. 
He thinks all of us were in that firecracker busi¬ 
ness.” Dick was serious for once. 

“We can’t prove Howard threw the fire¬ 
cracker,” John said gloomily. 

“ I know he had one,” Nelson said. “ One of 
the freshies who was with him at the picnic told 
me he gave him a big firecracker and that How¬ 
ard told him he was going to throw it close to a 
man he didn’t like.” 

“ The only way we can do with Howard is to 
fight him,” proposed Merritt. “ It wouldn’t be 
fair for all us kids to start at him.” 


BOY FRIENDS 


201 


“ Oh, we couldn’t do that,” Nelson replied 
hastily. “ I’m not afraid to fight him, but my 
mother doesn’t want me to have fist fights with 
the boys. She says it’s the wrong way to do un¬ 
less you have to defend yourself.” 

The chums tried to think of different plans to 
make Howard Myers own up to his misdoings 
and clear John. They could think of nothing 
within their power to do. Dick decided to him¬ 
self that he would not give up thinking about it 
until he had found a way. 

All of a sudden Nelson began to laugh. He 
laughed and kept on laughing until he nearly 
cried. “ Oh, you ought to have seen how funny 
Mr. Burton looked,” he said when he could 
straighten his face enough to talk. “ He sat on 
the top of the cave and looked so mad. It scared 
me so when he sat down on the roof I dropped 
what was left of my pie on the floor.” 

“ I had one big bite left and I swallowed it too 
quick,” chuckled Charlie. “ It gave me the 
throatache.” 

“ Yes, and just when we were reading about 
the Seabird going to smash, Mr. Burton smashed 
our roof,” laughed Merritt Wade. 

The funny side of their trouble which they 


202 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

could not help seeing brightened them up. Still, 
they had lost their zeal for practice for the day. 
They did a little work in the Hopkins’ yard, but 
Charlie, Nelson, Merritt and Dick went home at 
lunch time. 

The brothers told their mother of the cave dis¬ 
aster at luncheon. She could not help laughing a 
little but said, “ I feel that I’m to blame for not 
paying more attention to you when you first 
spoke of digging this cave. If your father had 
been here he would not have allowed you to dig 
one outside your own premises. Never dig up a 
foot of land that belongs to anyone else, boys. 
Remember that.” 

The next day the chums played ball in the 
Hopkins’ yard, but the day after that none of 
the four boys appeared. John and Jimmy spent 
a restless morning and afternoon wondering what 
had happened to their chums. Jimmy telephoned 
Dick’s house twice in the afternoon, but both 
times Mrs. Carter said Dick was out with the 
boys. 

In the meantime Raymond Alden, one of the 
boys who was to play on the team, came home 
from the mountains on the day of the cave dis¬ 
aster. He was anxious to see his chums and went 


BOY FRIENDS 203 

around among them that evening inviting them 
to a swimming party at the lake the next day. 
Raymond had not included John and Jimmy in 
the invitation. He did not know them. They 
had not met him the day of the school party and 
he had gone away to the mountains soon after¬ 
ward. Like Dick, Nelson and Charlie were al¬ 
lowed to go swimming in Rainbow Lake. Mer¬ 
ritt was not allowed to go into the water but he 
had not been forbidden to go down to the lake 
shore. He joined Raymond’s swimming party 
as an onlooker. 

As there were no bath houses at the lake the 
swimmers dressed at home in their one-piece 
bathing suits. Over them they slipped their rain¬ 
coats. To see a rain-coated party of boys scam¬ 
pering through the streets of Lakeview on a fine 
sunny day was to see a swimming party bound 
for Rainbow Lake. 

There were nine boys in Raymond’s party 
counting Merritt. Eight of them dived off the 
spring-board, one after another. Merritt sat on 
the sandy shore in the sun and carried on a 
shouted conversation with his chums. While the 
fun was at its height three boys came down to the 
lake shore and stood watching the swimmers. 


204 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

One of them was Howard Myers. The other 
two were his particular chums, Fred Bates and 
Wallace Gray. Fred and Wallace wore rain¬ 
coats. Howard had on a linen suit, but he car¬ 
ried a bundle under one arm which suggested a 
bathing suit. Long since he had been forbidden 
by his father to go swimming in Rainbow Lake 
as he was a poor swimmer. He disobeyed the 
order whenever he felt like it and was sure that 
his father would not hear of it. On this account 
he never dared put on his bathing suit at home. 

Near the lake shore not far from the sj)ring- 
board was a stand kept by an old man. His 
name was Mr. Riley and he sold popcorn, pea¬ 
nuts, candy and soft drinks. There was a room 
back of the one used as a stand and in this Mr. 
Riley lived. Howard used to pay the old man 
a quarter for allowing him to use this back room 
as a dressing-room. 

“ Go and get on your swimming togs, Myers,” 
said Fred with a displeased glance at Raymond’s 
party. “ We’ll chase these fresh little snips right 
out of the water. There’ll be no chance at the 
spring-board with them around.” 

“ All right. I’ll be back in a minute.” How¬ 
ard turned and started toward the stand. When 


205 


BOY FRIENDS 

he drew near to it he saw it was closed. Mr. 
Riley was away. “ Oh, bother! ” he exclaimed. 
He went up to the door and shook it and pounded 
on it. He tried to get in at a side window but it 
was locked. Then he remembered there was a 
little back porch to the shack covered with vines. 
He decided he would go there and change his 
clothes. Ten minutes later he was heading for 
the spring-board with his friends. They were 
bent on driving the younger boys away from 
it. 

“ Come on, you kids, clear out,” ordered Wal¬ 
lace, almost walking into a group of five boys 
gathered at the base of the spring-board. 

“ We’re not going to clear out,” Nelson White 
returned coolly. “ If you want to use the spring¬ 
board, go ahead. We’re not in your way.” 

Four boys of Raymond’s party were in the 
water. They were near enough to shore to hear 
Wallace’s and Fred’s gruff tones. They hustled 
out of the lake to join their chums. It was a 
case of nine against three and three were cow¬ 
ardly. 

“ You’d better keep out of our way.” Fred 
saw that it would be safer to move on. He 
scowled at the boys he disliked and went on out 


206 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


on the spring-board. Howard and Wallace fol¬ 
lowed him. 

“ Howard Myers’ father would be mad if he 
knew Howard was in swimming,” Charlie New¬ 
ton said. “ A boy told me Howard wasn’t al¬ 
lowed to go swimming in the lake. He goes and 
changes to his bathing suit at Mr. Riley’s stand. 
He always comes to the lake all dressed in a suit 
he wears every day.” 

“ Mr. Riley’s not home to-day.” Raymond 
glanced at the closed stand. “ How did he get 
in to change? ” 

“ I don’t think he got in. He must have 
changed to his bathing suit on the back porch,” 
guessed Charlie. “ It’s all covered with vines.” 

Dick had been listening to his chums without 
saying a word. A brilliant idea had popped into 
his head. “ I’ll be back in a minute,” he suddenly 
said, and ran off toward the stand. The boys 
were used to Dick’s unexpected moves. They 
did not bother to ask him where he was going. 
The spring-board was now clear of Howard and 
his companions so they resumed their diving from 
it. 

Dick had already reached the back porch of 
the shack. He glanced eagerly about it and gave 


BOY FRIENDS 


207 


a satisfied cluck as his eyes fell on a neat heap 
of clothing under a wooden bench. He pounced 
upon it and flitted away with it. Presently he 
returned empty-handed to his chums. 

“ I found Howard Myers' clothes on Mr. 
Riley's back porch under a bench,” he announced 
gleefully. “ I hid 'em. He can't have 'em again 
until he owns up before us all that John didn't 
throw a single stone. He’ll have to own up about 
the firecracker, too.” 


CHAPTER XIX 
dick’s way 

Dick’s chums stared at him in deep admira¬ 
tion. They were amazed at his daring. Then 
they found their voices and raised them in a 
joyous whoop. Dick grinned widely at this ap¬ 
plause. “ I knew I’d find a way to make him 
own up,” he said. 

“ But we haven’t any paper down here for him 
to write on!” exclaimed Nelson White, “and 
there’s no place near here where we can get any.” 

“ We don’t want a paper,” Dick said sturdily. 
“ We’ve got to make Mr. Burton take our word 
for it.” 

“ How are we going to see him? ” asked Nel¬ 
son. “ He wouldn’t pay any attention to us. 
We could send him the paper in a letter.” 

“ I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” Dick re¬ 
turned, “ and I think we ought to go to his house 
and see him. He believes we are boys like How¬ 
ard. We’ve got to speak up for ourselves and 
208 


DICKS WAY 


209 


tell him we aren’t. I don’t mean you, Raymond, 
or you, George and Harry. It’s the rest of us 
he thinks are no good. We’ll make Howard own 
up first. Then we’ll give him back his clothes 
and we’ll go over to Mr. Burton’s house in a 
bunch. It’ll be after five o’clock by the time 
we get there, so he’ll probably be home. We’ll 
tell him what Howard said, and about John. If 
he says he doesn’t believe us, we’ll have to keep 
talking to him till he does.” Dick’s merry 
face took on a stubborn look. He was in dead 
earnest. 

“ If Howard can’t find his clothes maybe he’ll 
go home in his bathing suit,” said Raymond. 
“ Maybe he’d rather do that than own up.” 

“ No siree,” laughed Dick; “ he wouldn’t walk 
home in that red and blue bathing suit for any¬ 
thing. He’s so fat, everybody would yell and 
laugh at him. Besides his father might see him. 
He hasn’t a rain-coat and there isn’t a place 
around here where he can get any clothes to put 
on. Mr. Riley’s away, so he can’t give Howard 
any.” 

At a little before five Howard and his chums 
came out of the water to stay out. Howard at 
once hurried toward the stand. He came run- 


210 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


ning back in about ten minutes, his fat face full 
of alarm. “ Someone’s stolen my clothes! ” he 
exclaimed. “ I’ve got to be home by six. My 
two cousins are coming to our house to dinner. 
Let me take your rain-coat, Fred. You can wait 
here. I’ll send it back to you.” 

“ Yes, you will,” jeered Fred. “ You’d forget 
it the minute you got home. No, sir. I need my 
coat. Think I’m going to walk home in my 
trunks and be laughed at? ” 

Wallace was equally disobliging. He merely 
laughed at Howard’s plea. 

“ You’re a pair of stingies! ” Howard at last 
cried out angrily. He started back toward the 
stand not knowing what to do. 

Half-way to the stand he met nine boys. They 
had seen him coming and had drawn up in a 
group to meet him. “ Get out of my way,” he 
said crossly, but did not stop. 

“ You’d better stop a minute,” advised Dick. 
“1 know where your clothes are; we all do.” 

Howard stopped with a jerk. “ Where are 
they? ” he asked in surprise. It suddenly dawned 
upon him that these boys were to blame for their 
disappearance. He grew red in the face and 
shouted angrily, “ Course you know! You hid 


DICK'S WAY 211 

’em! You go and get ’em this minute.” He ad¬ 
vanced threateningly on Dick. 

Dick moved not an inch. “ I’m the one that 
hid them,” he said with a sober face. “ I’ll tell 
you why.” He went on to tell Howard what he 
must do to earn the return of his missing clothing. 

Howard did not relish Dick’s plan. He 
blustered and sputtered and scolded and said, 
“ No,” flatly at first. It grew later and later. 
Still Dick held out against him. Howard dared 
not try to start a fist fight for Dick was too well 
supported. He saw, too, that the other boys were 
not angry, but determined. Finally he gave in. 

“ What do I care what old grouch Burton 
thinks of me? ” he said at last. “ I’m glad I 
broke his windshield. No; that Hopkins baby 
didn’t throw a stone. How could he? He wasn’t 
out of the car. His papa wouldn’t let him,” 
Howard jeered in a shrill, babyish tone. “I threw 
the firecracker, and I’m glad of that, too. Now 
run and tell on me. You’ll wish you hadn’t.” 

Before Howard had finished talking Dick was 
off at a run. He appeared from around a corner 
of the shack in a couple of minutes with How¬ 
ard’s clothing. Howard snatched it with a kind 
of gulp and hustled toward the back porch of the 


212 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

shack. It was almost six o’clock, but he thought 
he might make up an excuse for being late, now 
that he had his clothes again. 

Mr. Burton was sitting at one corner of his 
handsome, spacious veranda reading the evening 
papers when the sound of approaching voices 
caused him to raise his head. A little company 
of boys was coming up the white stone walk to 
the veranda. They paused at the bottom step 
and looked over toward him, then they came 
on. 

“ Good-evening, Mr. Burton,” Dick greeted 
politely. “ We’d like to say something to you.” 

“Well, what is it?” The big man spoke 
quickly, but not gruffly. His eyes traveled 
shrewdly from face to face. He recognized a 
part of the cave dwellers, but missed John’s and 
Jimmy’s faces. 

“ It’s—it’s about Howard Myers and—and 
John Hopkins.” Dick had thought it would be 
easy enough to tell Mr. Burton about John. 
Now he hardly knew what to say next. He 
paused, then said, “ I guess I’d better tell you 
first about the day Howard Myers broke your 
windshield.” With this start Dick found it easier 
to talk. It was not long before Mr. Burton had 


DICK’S WAY 


213 


heard a story which made him raise his shaggy 
brows and exclaim, “Humph!” and “Well, 
well, well!” 

“ We were going to make Howard sign a pa¬ 
per that John wasn’t to blame and send you the 
paper,” Nelson White said when Dick stopped 
abruptly at the end of his story, “ but Dick said 
you ought to take the word of nine boys.” 

“We want you to believe us, ’cause then you’ll 
believe John,” Dick declared candidly. “ John’s 
a truthful boy, and so is Jimmy. Folks says I’m 
mischievous, but I wouldn’t do the kind of things 
Howard Myers does, or say what isn’t true. 
None of us would. We wouldn’t say anything to 
y ? ou against Howard if we didn’t know you knew 
soirie things about him already. We’d tell you 
John wasn’t to blame, but we wouldn’t say who 
the other boy was.” Dick drew a long breath 
after this speech. 

“ I see how things are.” Mr. Burton’s tones 
were really pleasant. “ Well, boys, I believe you. 
I’m glad to hear your friend John Hopkins is a 
truthful boy. I haven’t had a very good opinion 
of him. You took the right way in coming to 
see me. That was far better than to make young 
Myers sign a paper. If you’ll sit down on the 


214 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

veranda and wait a few minutes I’ll try to make 
it right with your chum, John.” 

“ What do you s’pose he’s going to do? ” whis¬ 
pered Merritt to Dick. Mr. Burton had said, 
“ Excuse me, boys,” most courteously, and gone 
inside the house. 

“ I think he’s going to write John a letter,” 
was wise Dick’s guess after a moment or two. 

Surely enough, Mr. Burton presently returned, 
an envelope in one hand. It was addressed to 
“ Master John Hopkins.” “ Here you are, 
youngsters.” He handed the letter to Dick. 
“ Give it to John and ask him to read it to you.” 

“ Thank you, Mr. Burton.” Dick placed the 
precious letter in the pocket of his rain-coat. “ I 
guess we’d better go. We have to see John yet 
and it’s most supper time. We’ll have to hurry.” 

“ All right, boys. Thank you for coming. I 
think we understand one another a little better 
than we did. You’ll hear from me again.” Mr. 
Burton’s smile was very kindly now. His eyes 
twinkled a little as he viewed the group of bright¬ 
faced boys. 

“ Yes, sir,” they all said. “ Good-bye, Mr. 
Burton.” Led by Dick they turned and went 
promptly away. Mr. Burton watched them go 


DICK’S WAY 


215 


down the walk and out the gate. “ Well, well, 
well! ” he said again. “ They certainly got the 
best of young Myers.” He threw back his head 
and laughed as he had not laughed for a long 
time. 


CHAPTER XX 


HOME IS BEST 

“ I see where I miss the movies to-morrow 
night,” Dick remarked as the nine started for 
Happy House. “ I’m going to be home awful 
late for supper, but I can’t help it.” 

John and Jimmy happened to be out on their 
veranda when their chums turned in at their gate. 
They were almost as much surprised as Mr. Bur¬ 
ton had been. They darted to meet the group of 
boys like twin arrows from a bow. Dick twirled 
the letter before John’s eyes, then handed it to 
him. “ The one who wrote it said for you to read 
it to us,” he told John. 

“ Yes, open it,” echoed the other boys. 

“ Who wrote it? ” quizzed John as he drew the 
letter from the envelope and unfolded it. Jimmy 
was also eyeing the mysterious letter with inter¬ 
est. 

“ You’ll know when you come to the end of it,” 
Nelson said impatiently. 

216 


HOME IS BEST 217 

“ I’m going to look at the end first.” John did 
so and gave an amazed “ Why-ee! ” 

The boys all began to laugh. Jimmy could 
not resist looking over John’s shoulder. He 
puckered his lips in a surprised whistle. John 
began to read in a queer, unbelieving tone: 

“ Master John Hopkins: 

“ Dear young friend:—I am writing this 
letter to you to ask you to pardon me for not 
having taken your word when you and your fa¬ 
ther came to see me, and afterward at the Hose 
House. I am glad to know that you are the right 
kind of boy and have friends as honest as your¬ 
self to stand up for you. I have decided not to 
make a golf ground of the meadow this summer, 
so you and your chums may keep your cave to 
play in. I hope you will have many good times 
there. 

“ Yours sincerely, 

“ Elwood Burton.” 

The ringing cheer that went up from the happy 
boys brought Mrs. Hopkins from the living- 
room to the front door to see what was going 
on. 

In the midst of the rejoicing Dick remembered 
that time was flying and that he ought to be 


218 JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 


home. “ I’ve just got to go/’ he said reluctantly. 
“ Good-bye, John and Jimmy.” 

Dick turned and hurried down the walk. His 
companions went, too. 

“ I’m going to show this letter to Mother right 
away.” John looked proud importance. “ Dick 
is a fine chum, isn’t he? ” 

“ All the fellows are fine,” declared Jimmy 
with emphasis. 

“ I wish Father was home now so I could show 
him my letter,” John said regretfully. 

John took his letter to the dinner table and 
read it to his mother and Junior. Junior was 
not impressed by it. He had managed to lead 
Doodle once around the chicken-yard that after¬ 
noon by a long red ribbon and he was anxious to 
tell about that triumph. John thought Netta 
ought to hear the letter, too, so he went out to the 
kitchen and read it to her while she was getting 
ready to bring in the dessert. 

“ I have a letter, too,” Mrs. Hopkins said just 
before they left the table. “ It’s from Father. 
He will be home to-morrow evening. He can 
only stay two days, but he says he will have the 
week after next free so that we can go with him 
to the seashore if we like.” 


HOME IS BEST 


219 


“ Oh, goody! I’m glad as anything he’s com¬ 
ing to-morrow,” John cried. Next second his 
face fell. “ I don’t want to go to the seashore, 
Mother. I’d rather stay home.” 

“ Probably Daddy and Mother would like to 
go,” Jimmy reminded. “ Do you want to go, 
Mother? ” His tone was rather wistful. He 
hated to leave Happy House for a week just 
then. 

“ No, Jimmy, I do not,” his mother answered 
decidedly. “ I believe Father would rather stay 
at home, too. He is thinking of our pleasure.” 

“ Then let’s stay home, Mother! ” Jimmy’s 
face grew radiant. “ You’d rather do that, and 
so would we. There are such lots of nice things 
to do at Happy House. John and I want to go 
around with the fellows and play in the cave and 
have our first game of baseball; all the team are 
home now.” 

“ I don’t want to go to the sheashore,” calmly 
objected Junior. “ I are going to stay home and 
make Doodle learn to talk.” 

“ We’re all going to stay home,” Jimmy said 
with satisfaction. His tone sounded quite like 
his father’s, “ because that’s what we’d all like to 
do.” 


220 JIMMY JOHN. AND JUNIOR 


. “ Yes, and because our house is really; ‘ Happy; 
House,’ ” added John. 

“ And the three persons who have tried hardest 
to make it ‘ Happy House,’ ” smiled Mrs. Hop¬ 
kins, “are”—she paused—“Jimmy, John and 
Junior.” 


THE END 


Books In this set are: 

JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 
JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE (in press) 
HOUSE (in press) 

























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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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